India and Bangladesh yesterday began a two-day meeting of the Joint Working Group on demarcation of land boundary and adverse and undemarcated enclaves in a bid to resolve the longstanding issue.

The day-long meeting held at the level of Joint Secretaries of the two countries at the South Block, housing the Indian Foreign Ministry, grappled with 1.6.km of undemarcated land boundary in three patches, exchange of enclaves and adverse possession of enclaves.

The official-level meeting was interspersed with meetings of technical experts on the different issues involved, sources said.

A joint statement on the outcome of the meeting would be issued at the end of the meeting this afternoon.

Asked if there was progress in the meeting in resolving the issues, senior officials of both sides said "wait till the joint statement tomorrow".

Dr Kamal Uddin Ahmed, joint secretary in Bangladesh Ministry of Home Affairs, is heading the visiting delegation at the JWG meet while the Indian side is led by T S Thirumurthv, joint secretary in charge ot Bangladesh-Sri Lanka-Myanmar-Maldives division (BSM) in India's Foreign Ministry.

Today's meeting is a followup of the directives issued by Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh after the former's visit to Delhi in January this year to resolve all outstanding land boundary issues keeping in view the spirit of the 1974 Land Boundary Agreement and also to convene the Joint Boundary Working Group meet to take this process forward.

According to Indian government sources, of these three, there has been progress on exchange of enclaves. A joint survey of the enclaves was undertaken by teams from India and Bangladesh. The list of enclaves has been exchanged. There are Bangladeshi 51 enclaves within India and 111 Indian enclaves in Bangladesh.

Sources said the 1974 Indira-Mujib agreement remains the basis of a solution to the boundary issue and both sides are looking at how this agreement, if at all, needs to be modified with time.

They said resolving 6.1 km undemarcated portion of the boundary is not a difficult task. This 6.1 km is in three patches and officials from two sides will look into how to

address this amicably, sources said.

According to sources the two sides will try to evolve a new thinking on the issue of adverse possession. Transfer of land in some pockets is difficult and line may have to be redrawn in those areas, according to experts.

At present, there is 551.8 acres of Bangladeshi land under adverse possession of India, while 226.81 acres of Indian land is under adverse possession of Bangladesh.

The Indian side is understood to be keen for a package deal to address all three aspects of the boudary.

"What we need today is a new thinking. The success of the meeting will depend on how we go about addressing the unresolved issues. The idea is to reduce the gap and proceed to settle the issues once and for all," a senior Indian official said.

The JWG will be followed by a series of meetings between the land, foreign and home ministries of the two countries. A Home Secretary-level meeting is also likely to be held in Dhaka in December on this issue.

The flurry of meetings, said sources, is aimed at working out a

concrete solution to the festering boundary and enclave issues ahead of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's likely visit to Dhaka in January next year.