NEW DELHI, April 14: Amid a flurry of back-channel exchange of notes between the representatives of India and Pakistan, a picture was emerging on Thursday that a few ‘key measures’ could be announced after an informal summit between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Gen Pervez Musharraf at the weekend, with a distinct possibility of troop reduction in Kashmir.

“If the level of violence comes down, and if the infiltration remains low — and we will know only when the snow melts — then the level of Indian forces can come down,” India’s National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan said in an interview.

Mr Narayanan’s back channel man for Pakistan Sateesh Kumar Lambah and Pakistan’s Tariq Aziz have been poring over the various possibilities of a joint statement likely to be issued at the end of President Musharraf’s three-day visit to India.

Mr Lambah and Mr Aziz have met at least once in Dubai since Gen Musharraf expressed a desire to watch the Pakistan team playing a cricket match in India.

In his interview to The Hindu published on Thursday, Mr Narayanan claimed that India was not very clear about the exact or approximate expectations of Gen Musharraf from the visit. Nor did New Delhi seem to be sure about what ‘out-of-the-box’ proposals could Pakistan make on Kashmir for instance, during the general’s talks with the prime minister.

“On the table, Pakistan has produced very few proposals on Kashmir. We remain unsure what the General Sahib wants,” Mr Narayanan said.

“The Pakistan president has not come out openly to suggest A, B, C. He keeps talking in broad terms of the wishes of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Does he know what the people of Jammu and Kashmir want?”

According to the Hindu, New Delhi is in the same mood this week as it was on the eve of the first Singh-Musharraf dialogue in New York last October. “Expect neither a dramatic breakthrough nor a breakdown,” is the preferred one-liner, it said.

On the possibility of a dialogue with the leaders of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Mr Narayanan was unambiguous: “If they want to meet the prime minister, it would be possible. If they are willing, we are available.”

However, he said: “They keep saying they want to meet the prime minister, but then nothing happens. We presume there are pressures on them” and they must act as per ‘their instructions’.

Mr Narayanan said the APHC was neither the ‘sole representative’ of Jammu and Kashmir nor ‘the answer’ to all its problems. “We are not even sure what their demands are, what they do want,” he said. There was talk of Pakistan wanting the Hurriyat leaders on the inaugural Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus, but “they did not even apply for bus permit,” he pointed out.

Elsewhere in New Delhi there was speculation that the prime minister was likely to make some kind of offer to Gen Musharraf of a long-term plan for a solution to the Kashmir issue.

One news agency quoted a source in the Indian prime minister’s office for this claim but it gave no details. “Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wants to do business with President Musharraf. We don’t want unnecessary hype. We want this meeting to be meaningful and substantial,” Dr Singh’s media adviser Sanjaya Baru said.

Sources said it was likely that reduction of troops in Siachen, the contentious issue of Baglihar dam and trade-related issues would be discussed by the two leaders.