Bangladesh and India will hold secretary-level talks in New Delhi today to finalise the framework of an interim treaty for sharing the Teesta water in dry season, prior to the water resources minister-level talks in Dhaka.

Bangladesh Water Resources Secretary Sheikh Wahiduzzaman already reached New Delhi yesterday to meet his Indian counterpart Dhruv Vijay Singh after a gap of five months.

During his day-long stay, Wahiduzzaman will also invite Indian Water Resources Minister

Salman Khursheed to visit Bangladesh for the minister-level talks, schedule for which is yet to be fixed.

Officials in Dhaka said the interim treaty might be singed during Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's proposed visit to Dhaka later this year. The minister-level talks will be held before that.

The two countries have been discussing the Teesta water sharing issue for over two decades. Besides, talks on sharing waters of six more rivers -- Menu, Khowai, Muhuri, Gomti, Dhorla and Dudhkumar — are also going on between the two countries for years.

Bangladesh badly needs the Teesta water, especially during the dry season --December to March. At times in December and January, water flow goes down to less than 1,000 cusec from 5,000 cusec as India withdraws water.

An agreement on sharing the Teesta water was envisaged in the joint communique issued after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to India in January last year.

Earlier, Dhaka proposed equal sharing of the Teesta water keeping 20 percent for the river flow. India wanted 55 percent of its water after leaving 20 percent for the river flow.

Officials in Dhaka, however, said India is seeking a 15-year treaty on sharing the Teesta water, and also tagged with it sharing water of the Feni river during the dry season.

Dhaka, however, defers tagging the Feni issue with the sharing of Teesta water, and made clear its position that the first priority of Bangladesh is the Teesta and six other rivers. And it seeks a next generation comprehensive water-sharing agreement later, which will cover all the 54 rivers shared by the two countries.

Diplomatic sources said India is firm on sharing the Teesta and Feni waters at a time. Sharing of the Feni water is very important to India since it has been sup-

plying water (treated) form this river to nearby localities with the consent of Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao arrives in Dhaka today in the run-up to Manmohan Singh’s proposed visit to Bangladesh.

During her two-day visit, she will hold Foreign Secretary-level Consultations between the two countries tomorrow when all aspects of bilateral relations as well as subregional issues will be taken up.

On top of the agenda of the consultation is the agreement on the Teesta river for which the water resources secretaries of the two countries meet in New Delhi today.

Our New Delhi Correspondent Pallab Bhattacharya reported that the two secretaries will "fine tune" the agreement on water sharing, expected to be signed during the Indian premier'svisit.

The two countries exchanged draft agreements on the Teesta river water sharing during the 37th Ministerial-level Joint Rivers Commission (JRC) meeting in New Delhi on March 17-20 last year. India also presented some principles upon which it wanted to close the deal.

The last secretary-level talks of the JRC held in Dhaka on January 10 this year also discussed water sharing of the common rivers.

"While we have agreed on a framework, we still need to fine-tune it," a top Indian water resources ministry official said.

The two countries share 54 rivers. In 1996, they signed a treaty on sharing the Ganges water.