In the light of reports that both sides are making concrete moves towards repairing their relationship, ambassador Zhou Gang's remarkably moderate comments at a public speech today seemed emblematic about Beijing's renewed keenness to renew the diplomatic relationship with India.

According to highly placed officials in the ministry of external affairs, New Delhi is also determined to end the hostility of the past year and talk once again as equal powers. ``It doesn't feel right,'' the ministry sources said, ``for Asia's largest powers not to talk to each other.''

Both sides are now working on dates to hold the bilateral Joint Working Group towards the end of April or the beginning of May, at the foreign secretary level inBeijing.

China has ``welcomed'' India's recent efforts ``not to view (it) as its enemy'', Zhou said in his speech, and believes that the only outstanding issue between the two neighbours remains the boundary dispute left behind by history.

Zhou's obvious efforts to put the relationship back on track continued during the question-answer session that followed his speech. The boundary dispute, he said, must not only be resolved in a spirit of ``mutual understanding and mutual accommodation,'' but also take into account the ``national feelings of not only the Chinese people but also the Indian people as well.''

Since the dispute was a ``very complicated'' one, the ambassador went on to say, it was now up to both sides to diversify the relationship into other areas. Parliamentarians, women, sports people, youth, businessmen, and even the armed forces from both sides should meet more often, he added.

China and India were the initiators of the Panchsheel, he pointed out, so they should now jointly ``take thelead and make themselves an example to follow.''

Zhou admitted that a February dialogue between foreign office officials on both sides had provided a ``new starting point.'' During his speech he did not once mention the now-famous phrase that India should first ``untie the knot''.

Instead, according to Zhou, ``as long as the two sides trust each other, do not view the other side as a threat to (the other), treat each other with sincerity and strictly adhere to the (Panchsheel principles)...Sino-Indian relations will be gradually resumed and developed.'' He merely added, ``We hope the India side will make concrete efforts in this respect.''

Analysts here said they expected the Sino-Indian relationship to now move forward, especially since Beijing and Washington have run into trouble over the alleged stealth of US nuclear secrets by Chinese spies. On the other hand, as four of the five nuclear powers continue to have intensified exchanges with India over the nuclear issue, the analysts added, Beijing canhardly afford to be left out altogether.

``The differences'' that remain between India and China, Zhou added, ``are nothing abnormal. The key, however, lies in what kind of attitude to take towards them. The outstanding issue between China and India is no more than the boundary dispute left behind by history. Fundamentally speaking, this (the boundary dispute) is a legacy of history when India was ruled by colonialists. China is the victim,'' he said.