NEW DELHI, May 12 (UPI) -- India has prepared a detailed "road map" for peace talks with Pakistan, Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha said Monday.
"Every step is clear in our mind," Sinha told the private NDTV channel. "There is no confusion and we will proceed according to the plan."
He said talks between the two sides would also start.
Although no fixed date has been set, Pakistan has sent feelers to India that talks may be sometime in June.
"The possibility is there that Pakistan and India could initiate a dialogue sometime at the beginning of next month," Pakistani Information Minister Rashid Ahmed told NDTV from Islamabad. "I am not giving any date or confirmation."
"The two prime ministers have spoken on the telephone. We have announced some steps and there has been some response from Pakistan," he said. "And, I suppose, at some appropriate time, the dialogue will also begin."
He said the "right approach" would be to treat the disputed Kashmir region as one of the many issues to be discussed between the two sides. Pakistan regards Kashmir, which both countries claim in its entirety, as the core issue to be discussed.
"The thawing has already begun but there will be no dramatic gestures," Sinha said. "The general approach is to begin with official-level talks leading up to a political summit.
"The idea is to prepare the groundwork and discuss what we are going to talk about."
The two neighbors and nuclear-armed rivals have embarked upon a thawing of relations and have announced a series of confidence-building measures. They resumed full diplomatic relations and revived transportation links that were snapped after a December 2001 attack on India's Parliament that New Delhi blamed on Islamabad-backed rebels.
Predominantly Hindu India accuses Muslim Pakistan of aiding and abetting a 14-year separatist Islamic uprising in Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state, that has left more than 38,000 people dead.
India has insisted Pakistan end support to terrorism in Kashmir before talks begin.
"Ending cross-border terrorism is not a pre-condition but a practical necessity," Sinha said.
Last week, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage traveled to Islamabad and New Delhi where he met with top officials. Pakistan assured him it would crack down on any Islamic rebel training facility on its soil while India told him to increase pressure on Islamabad regarding its support of the rebels.
In a related development, Sinha is to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Wednesday in Moscow where India-Pakistan relations are expected to figure prominently.
