India and Pakistan agreed in "positive and businesslike" talks today to boost trade and trust to bolster peace efforts between the wary nuclear-armed neighbours.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh started the day by watching the first hour of a cricket match between their national teams.
As India slipped to defeat, angry fans threw water bottles at the Pakistani players and briefly halted the match. Musharraf and Singh generated a friendlier atmosphere at two hours of talks in the Indian capital.
"I want to say that I am happy that the talks were held in a positive atmosphere and with an optimistic note," Musharraf told reporters. "In my view there has been progress on all issues."
Singh's spokesman Sanjaya Baru described the talks as "very positive" and "very businesslike and wide-ranging".
Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran said the two leaders wanted to build a "common prosperity" through closer economic ties, and had agreed to revive a joint business council.
He said on both sides "there was a willingness to look at all aspects to take our relationship forward".
Both leaders restated their claims to the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, the cause of two of their three wars since they gained independence from Britain in 1947.
Saran said Singh had reaffirmed that India would not agree to redrawing boundaries and had resisted the idea of setting a deadline to resolve the "complex" dispute.
But there was more agreement on the idea of bringing the people of divided Kashmir closer so that, in Saran's words, "the more complex problem could be addressed sometime in the future".
There was a willingness to make life easier for the people residing on both sides in Kashmir, he said.
The most tangible sign of that came this month with the launch of the first bus service between Indian and Pakistani Kashmir in almost 60 years.
Saran said the two sides had also reaffirmed an agreement to open a second rail link this year, and try to speed up efforts to resolve a military stand-off on the Siachen Glacier deep in the Himalayas in Kashmir.