NEW DELHI, April 17: Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee will embark on a two-day visit to the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir from Friday amid calls by much of the world, including India’s own opposition groups, to start talks with Pakistan.

Mr Vajpayee is scheduled to address a rare public meeting by an Indian premier in Srinagar.

Diplomatic sources were sanguine, however, despite the recent shrill exchanges between senior officials of both countries that a thaw in the estranged relations with Islamabad was nigh.

They told Dawn that their hopes stemmed from Wednesday night’s telephone call Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha made to US Secretary of State Colin Powell in which they discussed Iraq and the situation in South Asia.

There have been reports of high-ranking US state department officials planning visits to the two countries shortly.

The Hindu newspaper reported that in the telephonic call “the two leaders discussed late this evening the unfolding situation in Iraq and reviewed the developments in the subcontinent.” It said the conversation lasted half an hour. Indian opposition groups urged New Delhi to pre-empt that necessity by resuming talks with Islamabad.

Former cabinet ministers Ram Vilas Paswan and Arif Mohammed Khan told a public rally in New Delhi that India should not try to follow in the footsteps of Washington and should give up the notion of pre-emptive strikes on Pakistan.

Urging Mr Vajpayee against seeking pre-emptive steps against Pakistan, Communist Party of India-Marxist said New Delhi should stop “aping the United States” and start to improve security in Jammu and Kashmir while inviting Pakistan to unconditional talks.