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Senior officials from India and Pakistan Tuesday exchanged various proposals for enhancing cultural ties between the two nuclear rivals, a foreign ministry spokesman said. "The delegations have met. They have exchanged proposals. These will be discussed further," spokesman Navtej Sarna told reporters. Sarna said specific details about the proposals would be available at the end of the second round of the talks on Wednesday. The talks are part of peace discussions known as the Composite Dialogue Process revived by the neighbours earlier this year. On the agenda are matters such as easier visa access, increasing the volume of religious tourism between the two countries and the lifting of a ban by Pakistan on the broadcast of Indian television channels, an Indian official said earlier. The ban has been in place since 2002 when the two nuclear rivals came to the brink of their fourth war since their independence from British rule in The Indian team is led by Neena Ranjan, secretary in the ministry of culture, while the Pakistani delegation is headed by her counterpart Jalil Abbas, a culture ministry official said. The eight-member Pakistani delegation arrived in New Delhi on Monday. India and Pakistan, who have fought two of their three wars over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, decided to restart the peace talks in January. Dialogue was stalled after the rivals between them sent a million troops to their borders after an Islamic militant raid on the Indian parliament in December 2001, which New Delhi said was sponsored by Pakistan. Islamabad denied the claim. The foreign secretaries of the two countries met in New Delhi on June 27-28 to discuss Kashmir and peace and security, while the defence secretaries of the two sides are to meet in the Indian capital on Thursday, a defence ministry official said. The official-level talks are expected to pave the way for a meeting between the two foreign ministers in New Delhi in September. The Indian Express newspaper said the latest meeting would discuss ways to enhance pilgrim travel to more Hindu temples, mosques and Sikh gurdwaras or shrines in both countries. Thousands of Hindu and Sikh pilgrims from India each year visit shrines in Pakistan and hundreds of Pakistanis visit a shrine to Sufi saint Khwaja Moinudeen Chishti in the western Indian desert state of Rajasthan. The "dargah," or shrine, dedicated to another 12th century Sufi saint, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, in New Delhi also attracts a large number of Pakistani pilgrims. Relaxation of visa rules for senior citizens and children under 12, increased interaction between journalists, artistes and businesspeople and the staging of art exhibitions could also be discussed, the report said. All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Quick Links
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