By Tarun Basu

Havana, Sep 16 (IANS) India and Pakistan announced an end to their stalemated peace process as they decided to resume foreign secretary-level talks and set up an anti-terror institutional mechanism following talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf here Saturday morning.

The two leaders - meeting after nearly a year - decided that the "peace process must be maintained and success was important for both countries and the future of the entire region".

A joint statement issued after their hour-long talks at the Protocol House, and read out on their behalf by Manmohan Singh, said the two leaders met in the aftermath of the Mumbai blasts of July 7 and have "strongly condemned all acts of terrorism and agreed that terrorism is a scourge that needs to effectively dealt with".

"They decided to put in place an India-Pakistan anti-terrorism institutional mechanism to identify and implement counter-terrorism initiatives and investigations".

The two leaders also directed their foreign secretaries to meet shortly in New Delhi to continue their talks that is known as the composite dialogue.

The joint statement said that Manmohan Singh, in response to a renewed invitation from Musharraf, "looked forward to a purposeful visit". The dates of the visit will be decided through diplomatic channels, though indications were it could happen later this year if the tempo of the dialogue process is maintained.

Both of them refused to take questions from journalists after reading out the joint statement. But confronted by Indian journalists later as he was leaving the International Convention Center where the two met the media, Musharraf described their meeting as "very good" and agreed with a questioner that it could be termed a breakthrough.

He also echoed the sentiments expressed by an Indian journalist "Mohabbat Zindabad (Long live love)" - a phrase from an old Hindi film that is popular in both countries.

Putting his finger on his lips, he said he was committed in mutual agreement to not saying anything that would hamper the progress of their talks but promised to speak to the Indian media at a later date.

The meeting - their fourth in two years - expectedly centred on issues like terrorism and Kashmir though the joint statement said all aspects of India-Pakistan relations were discussed in a "cordial, frank and detailed exchange".

The two leaders have so far met twice in New York and once in New Delhi. They first met in September 2004 in New York after which Manmohan Singh said he could do business with the Pakistani leader.

Both were in Havana to attend the two-day summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) that concluded Saturday.

Those present at the talks, which began as a one-to-one between the two leaders, were, from the Indian side Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma, National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan and Foreign Secretary-designate Shiv Shankar Menon, who is ending his tenure as India's high commissioner to Pakistan.

Present from the Pakistani side were Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, Human Resource Development Minister Sumaira Malik and Foreign Secretary Riaz Khan.

Musharraf has been pressing Manmohan Singh to make a return visit to Pakistan, but the Indian prime minister had said he could not go to Islamabad till Indian public opinion was convinced that concrete steps were being taken to ensure that militants were not allowed to use Pakistani soil to launch terrorist attacks on India.

The anti-terror consultative mechanism, in which both are likely to share information on terrorism, seems to be in response to that. There was no new assurance from Musharraf on restraining cross-border terror, though the joint statement recalled commitments made in previous documents from 2004 to 2005.

On Jammu and Kashmir, the joint statement said the two leaders had useful discussions and there was a "need to build on convergences and narrow down divergences".

The foreign secretaries have also been directed to arrange consultations for an early solution of the military confrontation over the Siachen glacier in the Himalayas.

The foreign secretaries were also asked to agree on coordinates for joint survey of the disputed Sir Creek and adjoining area "without prejudice to each other's position on the issue".

The two sides will also facilitate implementation of agreements and understandings reached on trans-border confidence building measures, including bus services, crossing points and the start of a truck services between the two Kashmirs.