Dhaka: The row between Bangladesh and Myanmar over lucrative hydrocarbon exploration in the Bay of Bengal continued unabated as a meeting called here to settle the issue ended in a stalemate.

"We have agreed for continued negotiations," Foreign Advisor in the Bangladesh interim cabinet Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury told newspersons as Myanmar s visiting deputy Foreign Minister Maung Moyint made a courtesy call on him at the end of the high-level meeting.

Asked if Dhaka felt the necessity of a third party UN intervention to settle the dispute, Chowdhury rebuffed the proposition saying "bilateral negotiations will have to be exhausted first".

"We expect to solve the dispute over the areas overlapping claims through discussions in future. We want good relations with Myanmar and as neighbours we need each other," Chowdhury said.

Earlier, before the talks resumed, Dhaka asked Yangon to stop hydrocarbon exploration in the disputed waters of Bay of Bengal.

Additional foreign secretary MAK Mahmood, who is leading the Bangladesh side in the meeting, earlier said that Yangon should restrict its survey and exploratory activities to the east of 180 degree line claimed as Bangladesh s territorial waters, until a final agreement between the two countries on maritime delimitation is signed.
Source : PTI