Indian and Pakistani prime ministers - Manmohan Singh and Shaukat Aziz - held talks here Wednesday on accelerating the momentum of the dialogue process between the neigbours.

The two met at Hyderabad House, the usual venue for meetings with visiting foreign dignitaries.

Indian officials had said while the main focus of the visit of Aziz, outgoing chairman of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), is the upcoming SAARC summit in Dhaka, bilateral issues and the ongoing Composite Dialogue process the two countries have initiated to normalise ties would also be discussed.

Manmohan Singh was hosting a luncheon in honour of his Pakistani counterpart and his high-level delegation that includes six ministers, three senators, seven members of the national assembly, seven leading businessmen and seven editors.

Among the invitees to the luncheon are Mehbooba Mufti, leader of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) of Jammu and Kashmir and MP from the state, and the leader of the main opposition National Conference Omar Abdullah.

Aziz had met various factions of Kashmiri separatists at the Pakistan High Commission Tuesday night, but his appeal to them to for a united front went unheeded.

They came for the meeting separately and left separately.

Manmohan Singh had telephoned Aziz Tuesday on his arrival for a two-day visit and said he looked forward to their meeting.

Welcoming Aziz, Manmohan Singh said the world had "lived through times where what was simply unacceptable in international relations has become the norm. Who could say some 20 years ago that the Berlin Wall would be a thing of the past?"

And he expressed the hope that "we can set in motion a similar process in this sub-continent. I earnestly and sincerely will work to that end.

Aziz reciprocating warmly to Manmohan Singh's call and conveyed President Pervez Musharraf's "warm regards" and said: "I know that having you here at the helm of affairs is a source of strength to all of us".

--Indo-Asian News Service