ISLAMABAD, April 5: Pakistan on Monday proposed to host expert-level talks with India on May 25-26 to discuss nuclear confidence-building measures (CBMs).

The foreign ministry announced that the talks were proposed "in pursuance of the roadmap worked out between the foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India on Feb 18, 2004, for resumption of composite dialogue."

The announcement comes two days ahead of the technical-level talks on the proposed Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service between the two countries. Foreign Ministry's Director-General for South Asia Division, Jaleel Abbas Jilani, handed over the proposal to the Indian deputy high commissioner in Islamabad earlier in the day.

The talks on nuclear CBMs will be the first interaction on the issue between experts of both countries after 1999. The last time a decision on nuclear CBMs was taken was during Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's visit to Lahore in February 1999.

At that time the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding covering both nuclear and missile regimes, including an advanced notification of ballistic missile testing.

The memorandum said the two sides would engage in bilateral consultations on security concepts and nuclear doctrine with a view to developing measures for confidence-building in the nuclear and conventional fields. The two sides undertook to provide each other with advance notification in ballistic missile and in flight tests. The system of advanced notification is already in place.

The two sides were also required to conclude a bilateral agreement that had already been finalized but could not be concluded due to rising tensions between the two countries.

The agreement covered a moratorium on conducting further nuclear tests. Under the memorandum, the two sides were also required to conclude an agreement on prevention of incidents in sea in order to ensure safety in navigation at sea.

Experts from both sides would submit a report to their respective foreign secretaries after their consultations in May as a precursor to the secretary-level talks on peace and security, the sources said.

The Feb 18 joint statement issued at the end of talks between Pakistani and Indian foreign secretaries here said the two secretaries would meet in May-June for talks on peace and security as well as Jammu and Kashmir. It was indicated in the statement that expert-level talks on nuclear CBMs would be held in the later half of May.

INDIAN RESPONSE: The Indian foreign ministry said on Monday it had received dates for holding expert-level talks on nuclear confidence-building measures and would soon respond to the invitation, adds AFP.