Indo-Pak dialogue is the only option: Experts

India and Pakistan are not yet ready for a true settlement of disputes between them and the two countries would gain by pressing towards increased trade, commerce and shared approach to problems of terrorism, water shortage and environmental degradation, US experts have said.

Neither countries had gained from the deadlock in the recent talks, Stephen Cohen, Senior Fellow at the Washington-based prestigious think-tank Brookings Institute, told PTI.

"Efforts to squeeze out statement was so strained that this underscored the likely futility of the exercise," he said, but at the same time he counselled that the engagement should not be broken off.

Another leading columnist Michael Hughes said it appeared that the Pakistani establishment was not ready to accept that its entire armed forces have been implicated in the terror plot.

"India must awaken to the reality that Pakistan's army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani smells blood and thinks he can knock India out of the box in Afghanistan and he certainly isn't going to wait for the trust talks to come to fruition,"
he said.

"The US desperately needs Pakistan - evidenced by the mad cash the US has dished out - and Kayani knows this and is going to make sure Pakistan has a foothold in Kabul when the dust settles," he said.

Meanwhile, in an article the Foreign Policy said the Indo-Pak talks ended without a breakthrough.

"A contentious press conference held by Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and his Indian counterpart S M Krishna underlined the reality that it will take more time to heal the wounds inflicted by the attacks and their aftermath," it said.

The prestigious magazine said there were four main obstacles to a stronger relationship, ongoing risk of terrorism, Kashmir, water and Afghanistan.

"Given the complexities of their shared history, it's little wonder that Qureshi and Krishna could agree last week on little more than the value of meeting again. That's why, if every journey begins with a single step, Indian and Pakistani diplomats should pack for a long trip," it said.

However, officials of the Obama Administration, which has made it a priority to help reduce tension between the two South Asian neighbours argue that the fact that the leaders of the two countries have initiated talks is a good sign, even though they concede that nothing much came out of it.

A senior administration official told PTI that it will take time for the dialogue between the two countries to yield results. This is mainly because of the "trust deficit" between New Delhi and Islamabad.

The official, however, insisted that even though it is encouraging the two countries for a dialogue process and maintain communication at "various level", but given the sensitivity involved, Washington has deliberately decided not to get involved in the process.