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India, China begin first-ever security talks: AFP

India and China began their first ever security dialogue in Beijing on Monday, diplomatic sources told AFP.

The Indian foreign ministry announced the dialogue last week, but the Indian embassy in Beijing declined to provide details.

China has made no comment on the talks.

The Indian side at the talks is being led by the ministry's joint secretary in charge of disarmament affairs, Rakesh Sood and the Chinese side by director general of its foreign ministry Asian department, Zhang Jiuhuan, the sources said.

Indian foreign ministry spokesman R.S Jassal last week said the talks would be "broad-based" and that "international security issues" would be discussed.

China and India agreed to the talks during Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh's visit to Beijing last June, Jassal said, adding the two sides would also discuss nuclear proliferation and other issues.

Jassal declined to comment on whether Indian charges that China supplied M-11 missiles to rival Pakistan would figure on the agenda of the talks.

However, he made it clear that the long-running Sino-Indian border disputes would not be discussed. India says China still holds 40,000 sq km (16,000 sq miles) of its territory in Kashmir, while Beijing lays claim to part of the far-eastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.

The disputes drew the two countries into a brief but bloody war in 1962.

Bilateral relations took a nasty downturn after India conducted a series of underground nuclear tests in May 1998. Beijing was furious after India justified the tests by pointing to a perceived threat from China's nuclear arsenal.

Analysts say China has been taking the lead among the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council -- which also includes Britain, France, Russia and the United States -- in pressing India for a rollback of its nuclear programme.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited India in 1996, but the last major Indian visit to China was by then prime minister P V Narasimha Rao in September 1993.

Indian President K R Narayanan plans to visit China in May to mark 50 years of diplomatic relations with Beijing.

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