NEW DELHI, Feb 19:India plans to issue an unprecedented 10,000 visas to Pakistani cricket fans to watch a rare series between the arch rivals starting next month, a foreign ministry official said on Saturday.

It will be the first time in the bitter history of the nuclear-armed neighbours that so many visitors are expected to make a trip across the border for an event, indicating that a slow peace process has helped boost ties between people of the two countries.

The Indian decision comes days after the two countries gave fresh impetus to their peace moves by agreeing to start a historic bus service linking disputed Kashmir, divided between India and Pakistan and the cause of decades of enmity.

"We are expecting a huge demand for visas and plan to have special visa camps in Pakistan to issue up to 10,000," the Indian official said. "We might even allow Pakistanis to obtain special permits and drive in their cars into India to watch the match in Mohali," he said referring to the northern Indian city which is a three-hour drive from Wagah, the only India-Pakistan border crossing located in the Punjab region.

Normally it is not easy for ordinary Indians and Pakistanis to travel across the border as visas are issued only to families separated by the 1947 partition of the subcontinent, and for religious, business and academic events.

New Delhi's decision reciprocates a similar landmark move by Islamabad last year which allowed about 8,000 Indians to travel to Pakistan to watch the first cricket series between the two countries on Pakistani soil in 14 years.

A Pakistani team last played a series in India in 1999. Last year, India won the Tests 2-1 and the one-dayers 3-2 in a series that generated huge goodwill among people of the two cricket-crazy countries who have a common history and share many cultural similarities but have fought three wars.

Analysts said the cricket diplomacy helped the peace process, which was launched last year and made the cricket series possible after the neighbours teetered on the brink of a fourth war in 2002.

Both countries claim the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir in full. India accuses Pakistan of supporting a revolt against New Delhi's rule in Kashmir which has killed more than 45,000 people since it began in 1989.

Pakistan denies the charge and says the rebellion is an indigenous freedom struggle. The political rivalry has often spilled over into the cricketing arena as matches between the two teams are marked by intense competition and have in the past been called "war without guns". -Reuters