Himalayan News Service

New Delhi, May 23:

Talks between India and Pakistan on nuclear confidence-building measures (CBMs), that were to be held here on May 25-26, has been postponed "temporarily" following a request by the new government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. "We conveyed the request to Pakistan today and they accepted it," external affairs ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said. The talks are likely to be held before the foreign secretaries of the two countries meet in June to kick off their composite dialogue process. Sarna said the request to Pakistan was made to give time to the government, which assumed office only yesterday, to settle down. He clarified that the talks had only been postponed "temporarily" and were expected to take place before the foreign secretaries of the two countries meet in June as part of the composite dialogue process they had agreed to on February 18 to resolve all bilateral issues, including Jammu and Kashmir. The talks were the first on nuclear CBMs between the two countries that tested nuclear devices in 1998. Manmohan Singh has emphasised that his government would "move forward to improve our relations with Pakistan on a priority basis."