Water, Kashmir rankle in India, Pakistan talks

By Krittivas Mukherjee

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Pakistan sought a "mechanism" on Wednesday to settle a dispute with India over water from the Chenab river, a row that Islamabad says could harm warming ties between the two nuclear-armed rivals.

Pakistan accuses India of violating a 1960 treaty by reducing the flow of water down the river, which flows from the Indian side of the Kashmir region into Pakistan.

India is building a dam on its part of the Chenab and Pakistan fears a shortage of water for irrigation as a result.

"We should see a mechanism is available and we should avail that mechanism to address this issue," Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told reporters after meeting his Indian counterpart.

"I am reassured that the Indian leadership is conscious of respecting the Indus Water Treaty in letter and spirit." The treaty divides up control between India and Pakistan of several rivers draining into the Indus river basin.

A World Bank team of experts conducted an inquiry into the dispute in 2005 but did not make its findings public.

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari said last month he would write to the Indian prime minister asking him to resolve the dispute which could harm bilateral relations that were improving since the two sides started a peace process in 2004.

Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said his country did not wish to deprive its neighbour of water from the Chenab, but said the problem was water scarcity.