Wednesday, May 24 2006 14:03 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: India and Pakistan today (May 24, 2006) failed to reach any agreement on demilitarisation of the Siachen Glacier as 'differences continued to persist on authentication of positions held by the armed forces of the two sides on the world's highest battlefield.

The Pakistani side is not agreeing to the proposal for authentication of positions (held by the Indian andPakistani forces) for quite some time and this is the area of difference which can continue. In this round of discussions, we could not make a breakthrough," Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said.

He was replying to questions on the outcome of two-day Indo-Pak Defence Secretary level talks on demilitarisation of Siachen Glacier, where the Indian and Pakistani armed forces have been observing a ceasefire since 2003.

At the two-day talks, which concluded today, the Indian side was led by Defence Secretary Shekhar Dutt while the Pakistan delegation was headed by Defence Secretary Lt Gen (retd) Tariq Waseem Ghazi.

Observing that the existing positions held by the two armed forces needed to be authenticated before the process of withdrawal and re-deployment at designated places started, Mukherjee said the present locations before vacation should be delineated and authenticated in a document. "

Mukherjee said, "We are still engaged in discussion and perhaps there can be forward movement in another round of talks. But in this round of discussions we could not make breakthrough."