Related Event: Kashmir Dispute

India's prime minister has invited Kashmir's separatists for peace talks, a move that could boost efforts to end the decades-old dispute between India and Pakistan over the Himalayan region.

The prime minister's spokesman said Wednesday Manmohan Singh offered to hold talks Sept. 5 with the moderate faction of Kashmir's main separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference.

Kashmir, the only Muslim majority state in predominantly Hindu India, is split between the two countries, but both claim all of it.

The talks come ahead of a planned meeting on Sept. 14 between Singh and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

Despite improved relations in the last two years, India and Pakistan have made few moves toward resolving the dispute of Kashmir, which was the cause of two of three wars fought by the neighbors since independence from Britain in 1947.

(Source: AP)