An eight-member Pakistani delegation will reach New Delhi Friday for two days of discussions on nuclear Continental Ballistic Missiles that begin on Saturday.  The talks are expected to focus on strategic stability, nuclear crisis management and risk-reduction.

Tariq Usman Haider, additional secretary in Pakistan's Foreign Office heads the delegation that includes top nuclear defence officials. Assisting Haider would be two Foreign Office officials, director-general of South Asia Jalil Abbas Jilani, a former deputy high commissioner to New Delhi, and spokesperson Masood Khan.

Khan said the parleys would focus on strategic stability, nuclear crisis management, risk reduction and coordinated as well as responsible stewardship.

"We are not starting from scratch," he said, adding that CBMs had been discussed earlier and some measures, like advanced notification of missile tests, were already implemented.

"We hope to build on them," he said.

Asked about External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh's proposal for a common nuclear doctrine for India, Pakistan and China, Khan said Islamabad had found it innovative and that it would be discussed during the upcoming talks.

The nuclear CBM talks are being held just a week before the resumption of the Composite Dialogue between the two foreign secretaries in New Delhi to discuss Kashmir, peace and security and CBMs. As per the roadmap agreed on by the two countries, the foreign ministers of the two countries will meet in August, soon after the foreign secretaries meet.

The Composite Dialogue also covers talks on Siachen, Wullar Barrage, Sir Creek, terrorism, drug-trafficking, economic and commercial cooperation, and the promotion of friendly exchanges in various fields.

Already, the two sides have agreed to adopt a cooperated strategy and to share intelligence to prevent drug-trafficking and smuggling at the two-day official-level talks that concluded in Islamabad Wednesday. These matters will be discussed in more detail at the agreed levels next month.

The nuclear CBM talks between the two countries follow a memorandum of understanding the two countries signed after the Lahore Declaration in February 1999.

Under the MOU signed by the then foreign secretaries, the two countries agreed to engage in bilateral consultations on security concepts and nuclear doctrines to avoid conflicts.

The two sides also agreed to give advance notice about ballistic missile tests, undertake national measures to reduce risks of accidental or unauthorised use of nuclear weapons, notify each other about accidental, unauthorised or unexplained incidents to prevent an outbreak of hostilities, and work out a mechanism to communicate with each other in this regard.

As per the MoU, the two countries also agreed to abide by their unilateral moratorium on further nuclear tests "unless either side, in exercise of its national sovereignty, decides extraordinary events have jeopardised its supreme interests."

The two sides also engage in bilateral consultations on security, disarmament and non-proliferation issues in multilateral fora, the 1999 MoU had said.

The June 19-20 talks are expected to improve upon the CBMs already agreed to by the two countries.