India's army has warned against pulling out troops from Kashmir's disputed Siachen glacier, ahead of talks between New Delhi and Islamabad which are expected to focus on the issue.
Top diplomats of the rival neighbours will meet in New Delhi on Tuesday for two-day talks suspended after India blamed Pakistan for July train bombings in Mumbai, in which more than 180 people were killed.
Ahead of the talks, the Indian army repeated its stance that Siachen, the world's highest battlefield, was stragetically important for the country and troops should remain in place.
"If we vacate the posts on Siachen Glacier-Saltoro Ridge and Pakistanis and Chinese come to control the valley, it can threaten eastern Ladakh," Brigadier Om Prakash told Times of India, referring to the region bordering China.
Demilitarisation of the 6,300-metre (20,700-foot) glacier - proposed this year by Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf - is expected to figure in talks between India's Shiv Shankar Menon and Pakistan's Riaz Mohammad Khan.
India wants the troops position marked out in case Pakistan moves its soldiers in after a withdrawal deal. Islamabad fears that writing down the position would be tacit acceptance of India's claims to Siachen.
India and Pakistan each hold part of Kashmir but claim it in full.
In 1999 Pakistan-backed invaders occupied the icy heights of Kargil, triggering fighting that cost hundreds of lives and brought the neighbours close to war. But there has been no fighting since late 2003 when a cease-fire took effect along the de facto border dividing the Himalayan region. India accuses Pakistan of stoking the insurgency, a charge Pakistan denies. The neighbours have fought three wars since their 1947 independence from Britain, two of them over Kashmir.
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