Islamabad: Terming as "useful" the recent technical-level talks with India on the Baglihar power project in Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan today (Jan 19, 2004) said it would like to continue the consultations until the differences are resolved.

"This round of consultations between two Commissioners of Indus Water Basin Treaty is useful. There are still some differences between the two sides," Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan said at a weekly press briefing.

He said Pakistan for its part would like to continue with the consultations with the Indian side until the differences were resolved.

A seven-member Indian delegation led by Indian Commissioner of the Indus Water Basin Treaty D K Mehta held three days of talks beginning January 16 with his Pakistan counterpart Jamat Ali Shah to narrow down differences over construction of a power project by India over Chenab river at Baglihar.

An official release issued later in the evening said that the two commissioners could not resolve their differences during the three-day talks.

Khan's remarks reflect a change in Pakistan's stand. Islamabad had served a notice to India last month expressing its intentions to seek an international arbitration to resolve the differences on the project, which according to it violated the 1960 Indus Water Basin Treaty.

As a follow up to it, the Indian delegation had come here.

At the meeting, the two sides reportedly tried to narrow down differences in the light of the new thaw in relations between the two countries.

The Indian side reportedly assured Pakistan that it would look into the technical objections in the construction of the project and wanted Islamabad to provide an analysis of its objections.