21 October 2004	Thursday	06 Ramazan 1425

NEW DELHI, Oct 20: Senior Indian and Chinese officials met on Wednesday to discuss a long-running border dispute between the two countries, India's foreign office said.

Chinese State Councillor and former foreign minister Tang Jiaxuan and India's National Security Adviser J.N. Dixit met here to work out dates for the next round of formal talks on the row.

The two sides agreed to seek "fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solutions to outstanding issues, including the boundary question," said a statement.

The dates for the next round of the border talks have not been announced and neither side has fixed a time-frame to resolve the issue.

India accuses China of occupying 38,000 square kilometres (14,670 square miles) of territory in Kashmir while Beijing claims 90,000 square kilometres - all of Arunachal Pradesh state, the scene of the war between the two.

The world's two most populous countries fought a brief but bitter war in 1962 and could not demarcated an official border. Tang has played a key role in the negotiations which have been ongoing since 1988.-AFP