A nine-member Pakistani team led by Defence Secretary Hamid Nawaz Khan began talks with their Indian counterparts on a 1990 proposal to pull out troops from the 6,300-metre (20,700-foot) high Siachen glacier, which divides Kashmir and overlooks Chinese-ruled territory.

An Indian defence ministry spokesman declined to give details after the two sides wrapped up Thursday's session of talks but said a joint communique would be issued after the discussions ended on Friday.

Indian Defence Secretary Ajai Vikram Singh said before going into the talks that the discussions on the glacier were "part of the composite dialogue process between the two countries (and) are an effort to solve all defence-related issues."

An Indian defence ministry official told AFP: "The talks went off well... A scheduled 10-minute one-to-one meeting between the two defence secretaries stretched well past 50 minutes.

"Preliminary talks focused on various confidence building measures and issues governing our respective stands on Siachen," he said.

Sources close to the talks said the Pakistani side favoured a pullback of troops to the level of the ceasefire reached after the last full-fledged war between India and Pakistan in 1971.

India, however, does not want a demilitarisation of the glacier to be linked to the dispute over Kashmir, which both countries claim in full.

The Indian army holds vantage points on the 72-kilometre (45-mile) long Siachen glacier, with Pakistani troops at lower positions.

"This two-day meeting is crucial for both sides because the results will have a bearing when we meet on Sir Creek island (maritime dispute)," the Indian official said as Khan called on Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Another Pakistani military team will begin two days of talks Friday on Sir Creek -- an area of water with access to the sea between India's Gujarat state and Pakistan's Sindh province -- which is still in dispute.

"(Just as) we want the demarcation of the Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL) in Siachen, we are looking forward to a similar demarcation of boundary in Sir Creek," another official said.

Military tensions in Sir Creek spiralled in 1999 when the Indian air force shot down a Pakistani patrol plane and Pakistan retaliated by firing missiles at India's military helicopters flying over the disputed marshy lands.

The two sides have also clashed on several occasions in Siachen over India's definition of the AGPL, which ends at a strategic reference point claimed by Pakistan.

A ceasefire has been in place on the glacier since November as part of a border truce in Kashmir.

The talks are part of a dialogue revived in January. India and Pakistan met Tuesday and Wednesday on building cultural and people-to-people ties, although they did not announce any major agreement.

More discussions are scheduled in August on trade and cracking down on drug trafficking.

The two sides, which have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since 1947, sent a million troops to their borders after the Indian parliament was attacked in December 2001 by Islamic rebels New Delhi said were sponsored by Islamabad. Pakistan denied the charge.

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