NEW DELHI, June 1: India and Pakistan are slowly but surely moving towards a summit that would eventually help resolve key differences that have divided them, Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes said on Sunday.

“There is a slow movement upward, but a very definite movement towards a summit, of a resolution of the issues that have been dividing us,” Mr Fernandes told delegates at the second Asia Security Forum in Singapore.

The comments, televised by Indian news channels, came after the Indian defence ministry repeated warnings in its annual report on Friday that it was concerned that Islamic groups in Pakistan may gain access to weapons of mass destruction.

The report also accused Islamabad of doing little to control alleged terror attacks by armed militants in the disputed region of Kashmir.

Fernandes added his personal force to the assessment, saying in Singapore: “It is bad enough if such proliferation takes place at the level of states of one assisting another belligerent or deviant state in obtaining such weapons from scientific laboratories or the nuclear grey market.”

The bigger challenge would be if such capabilities fell into the hands of “deviant states or if political parties that share fundamentalist ideology find a place in nuclear decision making”, he said.

Rare yet clear indications that talks were imminent came also from Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata (BJP) albeit they were couched in caution.

Speaking in Raipur, BJP President M Venkaiah Naidu said on Sunday that success of the talks with Pakistan rested with Islamabad.

“The success of the proposed talks with Pakistan rests with Islamabad and it should create a conducive atmosphere for that,” Mr Naidu told reporters at BJP headquarters in Raipur, Press Trust of India said.

Mr Naidu’s reference to the “proposed talks” and to their success is being seen as a departure from the party’s stand that talks will resume only after alleged cross-border terrorism stops.

Meanwhile, Indian news reports said US President George W Bush indicated he will talk to President Pervez Musharraf on the need to end cross-border terrorism in India when he meets him in Washington later this month.

The reports said the assurance was given to Mr Vajpayee when he talked to Mr Bush at a dinner on Saturday night hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg to the visiting heads of governments.

“Vajpayee was seated left of Bush at the dinner and the table was shared by Putin,” PTI said.