NEW DELHI, Feb 1: Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Friday ruled out resuming talks with Pakistan while his defence minister held forth against any military de-escalation on the borders, leaving two fairly senior officials from both countries, now in Munich, to divine New Delhi’s message at their own peril.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar and Indian National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra were to attend a three-day international security conference in Munich amid hopes shared across the world of an elusive bilateral chat on the margins to signal an easing of their simmering military tensions.

There was no immediate confirmation in Delhi if such a meeting in fact had happened on Friday. Diplomats were sanguine though that the two would meet before the conference ends on Sunday.

However, The Telegraph newspaper of Kolkata said on Friday that Mishra and Sattar would greet and not meet each other.

It was not clear if there was a major difference implied in this nuanced definition from the meeting the two had in Kathmandu when serious notes were exchanged between them, part of that in view of TV cameras during a brief tete-a-tete.

Vajpayee while ruling out immediate resumption of talks with Pakistan did not indicate if it covered an informal encounter between Mishra and Sattar similar to the one he had in Kathmandu with President Pervez Musharraf.

“They all the time harp on Kashmir. Kashmir is a part of India and will continue to be so. There is no question of part of Jammu and Kashmir or any other part being handed over (to anybody),” Vajpayee was quoted by news channels as saying at a function at political meeting.

“They (Pakistan) do not know what to do and what to say. They keep on saying they would like to meet with Indian leaders. Meeting for what? For discussing weather or some business?” he asked.

Recalling his bus ride to Lahore, he said India got rewarded with Kargil. Despite this India invited President Pervez Musharraf for the Agra Summit in the fond hope that in the vicinity of the Taj Mahal on the banks of River Yamuna, there would be some progress on the path to brotherhood.

“But that did not happen. He went back empty handed. What else did he want? All the time (he spoke of) Kashmir,” Vajpayee said.

While Vajpayee raised doubts about early talks, Defence Minister George Fernandes was equally emphatic about New Delhi’s continued military standoff with Pakistan until Islamabad acted on a list of 20 men India wants from Pakistan and until cross-border raids by Kashmiri militants ceased completely.

“There can be no question of any negotiated phased withdrawal,” Fernandes declared, saying that in the present situation India could not afford to keep “it’s doors open”. Although he admitted there was a marginal drop in cross-border movement of militants it was not substantial.

“The ex-filtration as well as infiltration is still going on. There may have been marginal drop in infiltration. It is nothing to write home about,” Fernandes told newsmen on the sidelines of a reception on the occasion of the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the Coast Guard.

Fernandes said there was no drop in Pakistani shelling across the international border or across the Line of Control, adding that exchanges had been mounting and were heavy in recent days.