Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's remarks Saturday on his way back from the G-8 meetings in Italy suggest that a deal with Pakistan on the resumption of talks, suspended after the attacks on Mumbai last November, may be at hand.

Delhi now seems to be waiting for two public gestures from Islamabad. One is a credible move on prosecuting the plotters of Mumbai attack; and the other a reaffirmation of Islamabad's commitment on preventing its territory from being used for attacks against India.

If all goes well--between India and Pakistan you can never be too sure--the agreement may be announced this week at the meeting between the Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and his Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir on the margins of the non-aligned conference at Sharm-el-Sheikh later this week. Hours after that Dr Singh should be sitting down with Pakistan's Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani.

On his return flight from Italy, Dr Singh said, "We have been told by Pakistan that they would take action against those guilty for Mumbai. I hope they do so. That hope is the reason why I am looking forward to the meeting with Gilani Sahib."

Clearly, 'talks about talks' have been underway after Dr Singh met Pakistan's president Asif Ali Zardari in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg last month. It is no secret that Washington has been encouraging Pakistan to follow through on the Mumbai prosecutions and nudging India to resume talks.

Some of the recent statements from the Pakistani leadership do suggest a measure of rethinking on the relationship with India. Zardari has declared that the principal threat to Pakistan and its way of life comes from the extremists and not India.

... contd.