Cricket boosts India-Pakistan peace talks

NEW DELHI - Leaders of India and Pakistan have begun talks to push forward a slow peace process after they watched the start of a keenly contested cricket match between their teams.

The talks came a day after Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, arrived in India for his first visit since a failed summit in 2001 and near war over Kashmir three years ago, saying he had come with a message of peace.

Although the three-day visit was planned as an informal trip to watch the match between India and Pakistan, it has ended up being less about the game and more about getting the sluggish peace process moving.

Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh smiled and shook hands before they entered an ornate hall, in what was once an Indian maharaja's palace, for their meeting. The two leaders did not make any comments.

Hours before the talks, Musharraf met Indian and Pakistani cricketers at Delhi's Ferozeshah Kotla stadium, located barely a kilometre from where he was born, before the teams got down to play the last game of their six-match one-day series.

Musharraf, dressed in a grey suit, walked past players of both teams who stood in a half-circle on the green outfield, smiling and shaking hands with them, as Prime Minister Singh walked alongside.

The crowd at the ground, estimated at 30,000, chanted "India, India" as Musharraf saluted various sections of the galleries and waved to them. Some 2000 Pakistani fans are also attending the match in the Indian capital.

A few Pakistani flags blew in the air amid a sea of Indian flags and spectators clapped as Musharraf and Singh walked to their seats in an enclosure surrounded by bullet-proof glass. Pakistan lead the series 3-2.

The Musharraf-Singh talks are the second between the two leaders and the first since they met in New York in September, on the sidelines of a United Nations General Assembly.

But the talks are not expected to produce a breakthrough to the nearly 60-year-old dispute over Kashmir, with both sides sticking close to long-stated diplomatic positions.

- REUTERS