NEW DELHI: Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir said Thursday that India's focus on the 2008 Mumbai attacks was "unfair" and was stalling efforts to get bilateral relations back on track.

"It is unfair and unrealistic and, in our view, counterproductive to... keep the focus on that (Mumbai) to stall the process of the broader relationship between the two countries," Bashir said after talks in New Delhi with his Indian counterpart Nirupama Rao.

They were the first official talks between the nuclear-armed rivals since India suspended dialogue in the wake of the 2008 assault on Mumbai, its financial capital which left 166 dead.

India blamed the attack on Pakistan-based militants.

Urging India to move forward and resume full-fledged peace talks, Bashir warned that neither country could afford to remain disengaged.

"This is a nuclearised region. It is important that India and Pakistan engage on a whole range of issues," he said.

He added, in an apparent reference to India's focus on Pakistan-based militancy during the talks, that "Pakistan does not believe that India should lecture us and demand Pakistan does this or that."

He added: "That is not how interstate relations are conducted."

Earlier, Rao had said the time was not yet ripe to revive the comprehensive dialogue, citing a continuing "trust deficit" following the Mumbai carnage.

"We are not desperate," Bashir stressed. "If India takes more time to reflect on the modalities of engagement, they will find us ready," he said.

Bashir also insisted that dealing with terrorism was his government's "number one priority" and argued that Pakistan was only too aware of the trauma and violence inflicted by terror attacks.

"We have suffered many, many hundreds of Mumbais. We have lost a great number of civilians," he said.

"For anyone to think that Pakistan would be dismissive of this problem, he does not have his facts right," he said.

During the talks with Rao, Bashir said he had stressed "the great importance" Pakistan attached to finding a peaceful solution to the issue of Muslim-majority Kashmir.

The Himalayan region is held in part by Pakistan and India, but claimed in full by both. It has been the trigger for two out of the three wars the countries have fought since 1947.