Associated Press

New Delhi, March 26:

India and China are expected to sign an agreement that moves toward resolving their decade -old border dispute when the Chinese premier visits New Delhi next month, a news report said today. China could give up its claim to most of the Tawang tract and India could do the same with a significant portion of Aksai Chin — the two most contentious areas in the disputed boundary that straddles India’s state of Arunachal Pradesh and Tibet, the Hindustan Times said. “India and China are expected to sign a 10 or 12 point agreement... (on) resolving their boundary dispute during the visit of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao next month,” the newspaper said, quoting an unnamed Indian official. There was no immediate official comment on the newspaper report.

India shares a 1,030-km border with China. The two nations signed agreements in the 1990s to respect the current boundary pending a final agreement. In 2003, special negotiators were appointed by the two countries to accelerate talks. The border was thrown into dispute in 1962, when China launched an attack on Indian forces that resulted in a 21-day war. Their frosty relations began to warm in the 1980s, and overcame another downturn over India’s 1998 nuclear tests. Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran is going to Beijing next week to discuss the proposed agreement at a meeting of the Sino-Indian Joint Working Group that has been trying to resolve the boundary dispute, the newspaper said.