Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his Pakistani counterpart Mir Zafaruallah Khan Jamali in the last fortnight have said and done things which have sent positive signals for peace and stability in South Asia.

First, it was Vajpayee who extended the hand of friendship. Then came Jamali's turn to ring up the Indian Premier and convey his appreciation of his gesture. They were quickly followed by India's announcement of the decision to restore fully diplomatic ties with Pakistan and lift the ban on use of Pakistani planes to use Indian airspace. Pakistani reciprocated within hours.

The decisions to send back their top diplomats to Islamabad and New Delhi and reopen respective air spaces constitute the first tangible steps the two countries have

taken in the last one and half years since the terrorist attack on Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001.

It was part of New Delhi's coercive diplomacy to recall its high commissioner from Islamabad and snap road, rail and air links with Pakistan soon after the attack on Parliament. It was, therefore, expected that the initiative to partially roll them back would come from India.

However, India, according to highly-placed government sources here, is viewing the process of engaging Pakistan again with a large measure of circumspection.

At the heart of India's cautious approach to the new peace initiative is the bitter experience of its two key initiatives in the pastVajpayee's historic bus journey to Lahore in February 1999 which was followed by Pakistani intrusion in Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir and the failure of talks

between the Indian Prime Minister and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in Agra in July 2001.

Given the deep mistrust between the two countries, it is too early to expect a clear roadmap for resumption of dialogue. But officials here do talk of two aspects in the backdrop of the telephonic talk between Vajpayee and Jamali on April 25.

One is the two countries going back to the state of bilateral ties that had existed prior to the attack on Indian Parliament and second exploring the possibility of setting in motion the dialogue process.

While rolling back of some of the punitive measures India had taken immediately after the attack on Parliament like resumption of air link and restoration of full diplomatic relations were very much on the cards after Vajpayee-Jamali telephonic talk, India is very cautious on the dialogue front.