A beaming Vajpayee told journalists on arrival from an eight-day tour of Oman, South Africa, Namibia and Mauritius, that ``talks have already started'' between the neighbours.

``Modalities for the dialogue have been drawn up and all issues including Jammu & Kashmir will be discussed at the bilateral level without any third party intervention,'' Vajpayee said.

New Delhi feels vindicated over its public insistence on a bilateral dialogue with Pakistan, especially after South African deputy president and the anointed heir to Nelson Mandela actually apologised for his mentor's reference to Kashmir at the NAM summit.

Vajpayee was content to repeat what his Principal Secretary had told journalists earlier : ``After the expression of regret by South Africa, the chapter is closed.''

Details on the bilateral dialoguewere not available but it seems as if New Delhi is ready to go the extra mile in making the effort to talk to Islamabad -- if only to assuage international opinion-makers that the sub-continent remains stable and that nuclear India and Pakistan will not go to war.

Vajpayee is making these statements two weeks before he leaves for New York to attend the session of the UN General Assembly. He will be speaking before the UN on September 24.

Significantly, the fifth round of the bilateral dialogue between India and the US will be held after the UN session, probably in the capital. New Delhi wants the dialogue wrapped up and US sanctions lifted before President Bill Clinton can make a visit to the sub-continent.

Vajpayee's positive notes on the Indo-Pakistan dialogue means that in the two rounds of meetings between the two foreign secretaries in Durban, one meeting between minister of state for external affairs Vasundhara Raje and Pakistani foreign minister Sartaj Aziz as well as an encounter between himselfand Aziz, both sides want to see light at the end of the tunnel.

The very fact that the Pakistani side first dumped protocol -- in the meeting between Raje and Aziz -- and India reciprocated by organising the encounter between Vajpayee and Aziz, means that both countries realise that they need to save face with Western governments. Pakistan desperately needs huge injections of cash to cope with its deteriorating economy and India wants to be accepted at least as a de facto nuclear weapons power.