Monday, December 27 2004 18:21 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Islamabad: Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan today (Dec 27, 2004) made "forward movement" in some of the Confidence-Building Measures (CBM's) and agreed to sustain the dialogue process and make it result-oriented.

"In some areas, there has been forward movement," Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan told reporters in Islamabad without elaborating when asked about the status of CBMs being discussed by the two countries.

Both sides also put forward proposals relating to peace and security which have to be "sifted and analysed" before they could be turned into mutually beneficial CBMs, he said briefing reporters on day one of the two-day talks between Foreign Secretaries Riaz Khokhar and Shyam Saran.

Making it clear that the Kashmir issue cannot be put on the backburner, Khan said there should be "two-way flexibility" and a solution on it must be expedited.

"We do not have to stick to our rigid stand. Otherwise, there can't be forward movement," he said.

Khan said there was a "robust exchange of views" between the two sides today on issues relating to peace and security.

The J&K issues will be discussed "in its entirety" tomorrow (Dec 28, 2004), he said.

Observing that Kashmir is a "complex" issue, he said, "It is not intractable. We are capable of solving this issue".

The two sides exchanged proposals on nuclear and conventional Confidence Building Measures. These have to be "sifted and analysed", he said.

Maintaining that the talks must be sustained and be result-oriented, Khan said efforts were continuing to narrow down difference on pre-notification of missile testing.