Monday, June 26 2006 10:14 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Beijing: India and China opened the eighth round of boundary talks here today (June 26,2006) to find a political settlement to the vexed dispute.

India's Special Representative to the India-China boundary talks, K Narayanan and his Chinese counterpart, Dai Bingguo met officially after a day of informal parleys in the northwest Chinese city of Xian.

During the two days of talks, the two sides are expected to continue their in-camera sessions in an effort to resolve the boundary issue under the 'political parameters' set during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to New Delhi in April 2005.

The two sides formed the Special Representatives mechanism in June 2003 during the visit of the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to China.

"Among other things, these guiding principles commit both India and China sides to arriving at a 'package settlement' of the boundary question in a spirit of mutual respect and mutual understanding," analysts said.

India says China is illegally occupying 43,180 sq kms of Jammu and Kashmir including 5,180 sq km illegally ceded to Beijing by Islamabad under the Sino-Pakistan boundary agreement in 1963. China accuses India of possessing some 90,000 sq km of Chinese territory, mostly in Arunachal Pradesh.