Thursday, March 24 2005 19:28 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Dubbing Pakistan's statement on demilitarisation of Siachen as "nothing new", India today (March 24, 2005) said there could be no movement on the matter till Islamabad agreed to "authenticate the present positions" of the respective defence forces.

Government said Siachen is one of the eight issues being discussed by the two countries under the Composite Dialogue Process.

"It is nothing new," official sources said here, while adding that Pakistan has been refusing to "authenticate present positions" of Defence forces of the respective country and without that there could be no movement on the topic.

The comment came in response to a remark by Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri in a TV interview that his country was ready to pull out troops from the Siachen glacier.

External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna told reporters, "It (Siachen) is one of the issues of Composite Dialogue. First round of the Composite Dialogue has been complete."

He refused to comment further, pointing out that the issue was being dealt with by Defence Secretaries of the two countries.

Kasuri earlier claimed that there was "already an agreement" between the two countries to demilitarise the world's highest battlefield.