Sholapur: Consolidating the peace process in Jammu and Kashmir, Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani today (Mar 16, 2004) said he would hold the second round of talks with Hurriyat Conference led by Maulvi Abbas Ansari on March 27 in Delhi.

The announcement came a day after the Hurriyat met in Srinagar and expressed willingness to hold talks, but only after they received an invitation from the Centre.

"My next round of talks with the Hurriyat leaders will be in Delhi when I am there on March 27 for a day after completing the first leg of this 'Bharat Uday' yatra on March 26 in Amritsar," Advani told reporters before starting on the seventh day of his yatra.

He said he was going to be in Delhi for a day on March 27 and so he has told the Home Ministry to make the arrangements for the talks with the Hurriyat leaders on that day.

"I had assured the Hurriyat leaders that I will have the next round of talks with them before the end of this month," he said.

Centre's interlocutor on Kashmir N N Vohra already met senior bureaucrats in the Union Home Ministry yesterday to discuss the agenda for the talks, besides deciding on the invitation that was to be extended to the Hurriyat leaders.

Sources in the Ministry said the invitation was to be extended soon.

The first round of talks with the Hurriyat leaders was held on January 22, which was attended by Ansari, former chairmen Abdul Gani Bhat and Mirwaiz Farooq, senior amalgam leaders Bilal Lone and Fazal-ul-Haq Qureshi.

Qureshi has since backed out of talks following militant threat.