SRINAGAR, Jan 15: Amid fresh violence and opposition by hardliners, Indian Kashmir's main separatist alliance on Thursday named a team for high-level talks with New Delhi and said it favours involvement of Muslim fighters in future dialogue.

The team will be headed by Maulana Abbas Ansari, the head of its own faction of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, former Hurriyat chief Abdul Gani Bhat told reporters here.

Mr Ansari this week received a formal invitation for talks on the future of Kashmir in New Delhi on Jan 22 with Indian Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani.

Besides Bhat and Ansari, other members of the team are Hurriyat founder Umar Farooq, Bilal Lone, the son of assassinated separatist Abdul Gani Lone, and Fazal Haque Qureshi.

Mr Qureshi had facilitated talks between India and the members of the dominant rebel group Hizbul Mujahedin in July 2000 after Hizb called for a unilateral ceasefire that was reciprocated by New Delhi. However, the ceasefire was called off by Hizb within a fortnight. Mr Bhat, speaking at the end of a Hurriyat meeting at their Srinagar headquarters, said he was cautiously optimistic about the talks.

"If you take a right step in the right direction in the very first meeting you reach your goal. If anything goes wrong you probably cannot think of reaching the goal," he said.

He said Hurriyat favoured involvement of militants in the talks. "We would like our boys (militants) also to be associated with the process," said Mr Bhat. "For that we will need to undertake a visit to Pakistan. We will take it up with the government of India (too)."

Similar pleas have been spurned by India in the past. Hardliners, who in September expressed no confidence in the moderate leadership of Mr Ansari and named Syed Ali Geelani as their leader, have opposed the talks while a militant group Jamiat-ul-Mujahedin has warned Mr Ansari and his colleagues of a "bad end" if they bow to New Delhi.

On Thursday, the Jihad Council, a group of over a dozen rebel groups active in Kashmir, said the moderate faction had no mandate for talks from the people and the rebels.

"It is a lot that has been rejected both by the people and the freedom fighters active in the field," council spokesman Sadaqat Hussain was quoted as saying by a local news agency.

"If the talks harm the freedom struggle in any way they (the Ansari-led faction) will be held responsible," said the council, of which the region's dominant group Hizbul Mujahedin is a prominent member.

Hizb claimed responsibility for a car bomb in a Srinagar suburb coinciding with the opening of the Hurriyat meeting. The explosion left a policeman injured.

Mr Bhat said he and his colleagues were not afraid of threats "I don't think I feel frightened. None of us does," he said. "They (militants) occasionally talk in sentiments but as soon as they get to understand the dynamics of the change they will agree with us that the only way available to seek a permanent settlement is (through) dialogue."

He said the final settlement has to come through talks involving India, Pakistan and Kashmiris. Kashmir analysts are deeply skeptical about the results from the talks in absence of hardliners who have the backing of rebels and Pakistan.-AFP