NEW DELHI, Oct 8: President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee spoke to each other on Monday, their first direct talk since the failure of the India-Pakistan summit in Agra in July, discussing their tense relations and briefing each other on their respective approaches to the ongoing military campaign against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and its likely impact on regional security, official sources said.

They said Gen Musharraf and Mr Vajpayee.spoke for 15 minutes during which they expressed their respective concerns, including New Delhi’s fears of Pakistan’s complicity in terrorist attacks in Kashmir.

They also discussed the shaping public unrest in Pakistan against the attacks on Afghanistan.

An Indian news channel said Gen Musharraf had promised to look into Mr Vajpayee’s complaints that some of the terrorists were operating from inside Pakistan.

India says the Taliban as well as Osama bin Laden have been engaged in armed attacks in Kashmir, using bases in Pakistan.

Gen Musharraf has condemned last week’s devastating attack on the state assembly in Srinagar in which 29 people were killed.

India accused the Jaish-i-Mohammed group for the attack. US President George W. Bush subsequently promised to include the group in America’s list of terrorist groups.

After his talk with Gen Musharraf, Mr Vajpayee presided over a meeting of the cabinet committee on security, where concern was expressed at the pro-Taliban demonstrations in Pakistan, official sources said.

Mr Vajpayee also spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the situation in Afghanistan and in Pakistan.

Diplomatic sources said the Vajpayee-Musharraf phone-call was spurred by the need felt by their common Western friends to urgently ease the simmering tension between the uneasy neighbours.

India and Pakistan agree on the need for a multi-ethnic government in Afghanistan, but disagree on which of the two rivals has greater claim on its friendship, and possibly its strategic resources.