New Delhi Sunday conveyed its decision to Islamabad to delay the talks which had been scheduled to start Tuesday, a foreign ministry statement said.

"The government of India has requested us for the postponement of the talks on nuclear CBMs (confidence-building measures) because, as a result of the recent transition in leadership, an external affairs minister of India had not yet taken office," it said.

Senior foreign ministry officials of the nuclear-armed neighbours were to discuss the confidence building measures on May 25 and 26.

The nuclear talks were scheduled under a calendar of activities agreed during the outgoing government of Atal Behari Vajpayee.

India has proposed that the nuclear talks could be held two days before foreign secretary level talks, without giving an exact date.

Under a timetable prepared by the two countries on February 18, the foreign secretaries are to meet in June for talks on Kashmir and security issues.

Foreign ministers are slated to meet in August to review progress.

Foreign office spokesman Masood Khan last week said the talks would focus on "strategic stability, crisis management and nuclear risk reduction."

"Pakistan and India are nuclear states and they must have a strategic restraint regime," Khan said.

The foreign ministry statement said "Pakistan was looking forward to participating in these talks."

The South Asian rivals, who conducted tit-for-tat nuclear tests in May 1998, have refused to sign up to nuclear non-proliferation treaties because they are not formally recognised as nuclear powers.

The neighbouring countries launched a two-pronged strategy of confidence-building and dialogue after a landmark agreement between Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Vajpayee in January to resolve all issues including the festering Kashmir dispute.

Pakistan and India both claim the whole of the Himalayan region which has caused two of their three wars over the past 56 years and is divided between them.

Analysts however believe the rivals were unlikely to "cap" their destructive nuclear race.

"These talks were long overdue. There could be no bigger confidence building measure than to agree on nuclear restraint," senior analyst A.H. Nayyar told AFP.

They will not agree on reducing the number of nuclear weapons, nor will they stop the missile race, but at the same time both want to save themselves from each other, he said.

Pakistan and India's possession of nuclear arsenals has made South Asia one of the world's most feared potential nuclear flashpoints, with their row over militancy in Kashmir bringing them close to a fourth war two years ago.

The new Congress-led Indian government has vowed to push forward the peace process initiated during the Vajpayee government.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday said he would try to seek "the most friendly relations" between the two countries by resolving all issues dividing them.

Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Khan described Singh's statement as positive and "a good beginning for productive engagement between the new Indian leadership and Pakistan."

WAR.WIRE