NEW DELHI: In their recent meeting in Russia, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had given a ‘very clear and consistent Message’ to President Asif Ali Zardari that the first steps to revive their bilateral talks had to come from Pakistan, India's junior foreign minister Shahshi Tharoor said on Monday.

India was willing to engage Pakistan in a revived dialogue but it expects ‘certain very positive’ actions from the other side that its territory will not be ‘willfully used to do us harm,’ Mr Tharroor was quoted by the Press Trust of India as saying.

‘We have never been opposed to talking to our neighbours. On the contrary, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been a fervent advocate of good relations with Pakistan,’ he said.

Mr Tharoor said Dr Singh's message to Mr Zardari was: ‘Take necessary steps in your own country to bring to book those who perpetrated these horrors on our soil and then give us enough assurance for your own conduct that we will not have to fear this again.’

He added, however, that ‘given that what happened in November (2008), came from Pakistan, the first steps have to come also from Pakistan — and then we will certainly have a good basis for reviving talks.