India said yesterday future peace talks between it and Pakistan hinge on Islamabad keeping its vow not to allow soil under its control to be used by Islamic rebels battling Indian rule in Kashmir.

"We remain committed to deepening our engagement" with Pakistan, Foreign Minister Natwar Singh told a media conference in New Delhi attended by a delegation of Pakistani journalists.

"However, the whole process is critically dependent on fulfillment of President Pervez Musharraf's reassurance of January 6, 2004 not to permit any territory under Pakistan's control to support terrorism in any manner," he said, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.

India and Pakistan resumed bilateral talks in January after for-

mer Indian premier Atal Behari Vajpayee initiated a renewal of the peace process between the nuclear rivals who have gone to war three times, twice over Kashmir.

Vajpayee's Hindu nationalist government was ousted at the polls in May but the new left-leaning Congress government pressed ahead with the peace process.

"Now there is a distinct change in attitude among people, political leadership and information makers... in India and Pakistan which is welcome," Singh said.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a message to the two-day conference of the South Asian Free Media Association that, "Creating a neighbourhood of peace and stability is a high priority of our government."

Noting South Asia remains one of the world's poorer regions, he

said, "Our individual and collective struggle to march forward on the road to development has been impaired by weak intra-regional cooperation compounded by mutual suspicion."

India has accused Pakistan of giving support to an armed Islamic insurgency in Indian Kashmir, a charge Islamabad denies. Over 40,000 people have been killed since the revolt erupted in 1989, according to official figures. Separatists put the toll at between 80,000 and 100,000.

Both sides have held several rounds of talks culminating with a meeting between Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Musharraf in New York last month.

Last Thursday, the two sides exchanged suggestions on dates for continuing talks between late November and early December.