Sunday, April 17 2005 14:18 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: India and Pakistan today (Apr 17, 2005) agreed to set up a committee to accelerate bilateral trade and launch rail link between Munnabao in Rajasthan and Khokrapar in Sindh in December.

The decisions were taken at the talks between President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that went on for two hours. The two sides also decided to increase the frequency of Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus services, official sources said.

During the talks the Prime Minister said, "We want to promote trade and any problem that are coming in the way we certainly want to resolve them."

During the talks Pakistani side complained that it has not benefited from the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status granted to it by New Delhi, as the Indian tariff and non-tariff barriers were not helping in enhancing the trade links.

The Pakistani side particularly mentioned textiles while complaining of non-tariff barriers.

According to the sources, the Prime Minister assured Pakistan that India would look into the problem.

On the controversial Baghliar dam project in Doda district in Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan maintained that it wanted the issue to be handled by the World Bank. Pakistan has approached the World Bank for arbitration.

The two sides also discussed the issue of reopening each other's Consulates in Mumbai and Karachi.