ISLAMABAD, February 16 (IslamOnline.net) - Nuclear rivals India and Pakistan kicked off a composite dialogue process with a historic meeting in Islamabad on Monday, February 16, between foreign ministry officials to thrash out acceptable solution to half a century of border disputes.

On January 6, Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf and Indian Premier Atal Behari Vajpayee decided to restart talks after more than two-year hiatus to bring peace to the region.

The three-day preliminary talks mark the first formal contact between the two nations since a 2001 summit in Agra when Musharrf and Vajpayee failed to agree on resuming talks.

It added that officials exchanged some proposals while discussing modalities and time-frame for the resumption of composite dialogue.

"Both sides expressed satisfaction at the progress made on the first day," said the statement.

The delegations were led by Pakistani foreign minister director general Jalil Abbas Jillani and Indian external affairs ministry secretary Arun K Singh.

Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Masood Khan said the first day focused mostly on the agenda of discussion to follow at more senior levels.

"Both sides expressed satisfaction at the progress made on the first day", he said.

"All subjects will be discussed and concerns will be addressed when you sit across the table" Khan asserted, declining to give details.

After two days of talks between officials, Indian Foreign Secretary Shashank and Pakistani counterpart Riaz Khokhar will join the discussions on Wednesday.

They will review the agenda to be finalized by the officials and announce the dates for the next round.

Analysts and experts are attaching major importance to this round of talks which follows a year of peace overtures from the two sides.

After fighting three wars and many more skirmishes over the past five decades, the two countries decided last year to mend fences and reciprocated peace initiatives including a ceasefire on disputed borders along Kashmir and re-opening communication links.

But analysts believe continuity of peace gestures would largely depend on how successful this round of talks would be.

"Pakistan and India desperately need to get positive results out of this initial dialogue," said Akram Zaki, a former diplomat.

He told IslamOnline.net that peace overtures and gestures can not last forever without a promising future in sight.

The expert said the agenda of the talks would include the points which have been in discussions from time to time in the past years.

The focus, he noted, would remain on the joint statement issued by Muaharraf and Vajpayee in January.

Although most Pakistanis support the resumption of talks, some still oppose the idea of talking to India.

In Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, more than 500 people from a political group seeking Kashmir's independence blocked a main street for nearly two hours Monday to protest the Pakistan-India talks.

"These negotiations are being held to end the Kashmiris' struggle," said Ghulam Nabi, a Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front leader.