Chidambaram's Pakistan visit to raise dialogue hopes

---

NEW DELHI, Feb 4 (AFP): India's announcement that its home minister will travel to Pakistan this month has raised hopes that the South Asian rivals are on course to resume a dialogue suspended after the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Home Minister P Chidambaram will be the first top level official to cross the border since the assault on India's financial capital by Islamist gunmen which claimed 166 lives.
India blamed the attack on the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group and broke off a four-year peace dialogue between the nuclear-armed rivals, demanding Islamabad bring the culprits to justice before talks could resume.
For the moment, New Delhi is downplaying Chidambaram's trip, stressing that it is not bilateral in nature, as he will be taking part in a meeting of interior ministers from the eight-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
"Chidambaram will get a chance to have very useful exchanges with his counterparts and other leaders in Pakistan," Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna told reporters when he announced the visit Wednesday.