High-ranking officials from Pakistan arrived here Friday and said they planned to go into the ground-break talks with an open mind.

"We have a responsibility as responsible nuclear states and so we have come here with a positive spirit and we look forward to a result-oriented outcome (from the talks)," Pakistani delegation chief Tariq Usman Haider said after reaching New Delhi.

Highly-placed Indian government sources said one of the issues in the upcoming talks would be a proposal of a hotline between the nuclear command-and-control centres of the two nations.

"The hotline could be in addition to a separate and dedicated communication line between the two sides," an Indian official told AFP.

Anti-nuclear activists are, however, demanding that both sides agree to dismantle warheads from missiles and that the rivals institute safeguards against accidental use of their weapons of mass destruction.

In Islamabad, Pakistani foreign office spokesman Masood Khan on Thursday said the nuclear discussions, the first since 1999, would focus on "strategic stability, nuclear crisis management, risk reduction and coordinated as well as responsible stewardship".

The talks will also coincide with a meeting of the two countries' foreign ministers in China on the sidelines of a regional conference -- their first exchange since a change of government in New Delhi.

"Since India now has a less hawkish government and Pakistan is now an ally of the United States, one would expect tangible confidence-building measures from the talks," said Jay Prakash of the Delhi Science Forum, one of India's top disarmament groups.

The former government of Hindu nationalist premier Atal Behari Vajpayee conducted nuclear weapons tests in May 1998, prompting Pakistan to carry out tit-for-tat tests a few days later which drew a slew of US-led sanctions against both countries.

The two South Asian neighbours, who have fought three wars since 1947, have refused to endorse nuclear non-proliferation treaties.

Islamabad and New Delhi, however, agreed to discuss confidence-building measures and launch a dialogue after a landmark pact between Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Vajpayee in January to resolve all issues, including the dispute over Kashmir.

Disarmament groups in both countries appeared gladdened by Musharraf's recent statement that Pakistan was prepared to cut down its nuclear arsenal if India did the same, but experts said mere pledges would be futile.

Strategic analyst Raja Mohan said the two sides -- who moved towards nuclear war twice in 2002 following an attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001 by Islamic insurgents which New Delhi blamed on Islamabad -- must focus on practical steps to enhance nuclear security.

"For India and Pakistan, the priority on the nuclear front is to put in place effective (confidence building measures) and avoid such unverifiable proposals as non-deployment of nuclear weapons," Mohan said in recently published comments.

Anti-nuclear activists warn that since neither India nor Pakistan have the technology to recall a nuclear-tipped missile fired in error, an accidental launch could trigger an unimaginable holocaust in the region of 1.5 billion people.

"And so, as we welcome the proposed bilateral talks on a number of issues, including nuclear risk reduction measures, we are opposed to the long-range missiles in their possession," said Veenita Bal, of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace.

WAR.WIRE