Indian and Chinese officials will hold border talks at the weekend, the Indian foreign ministry said Thursday, as part of meetings aimed at resolving a four-decade row between the Asian giants.
The boundary dispute dates back to 1962 when the neighbours fought a brief but bitter war.
A formal cease-fire line was never established after the conflict, but the unsettled border has remained largely peaceful following agreements signed in 1993 and 1996.
The two governments appointed special representatives in June 2003 to address the issues. The seventh meeting of the delegation will take place in the Indian capital New Delhi and the southern town of Kottayam from March 10-13, the statement said.
India's National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan and Dai Bingguo, China's executive vice foreign minister, will head up the discussions, the statement said.
The last round of talks on solving the boundary dispute was held in China in September.
Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said during a visit last year that resolving the boundary dispute was a top priority after Narayanan and Dai signed an agreement setting the "guiding principles" to settle the issue.
India says China occupies 38,000 square kilometres (15,200 square miles) of Indian territory in Kashmir while Beijing claims that the 90,000 square kilometres of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh belongs to China.
Bilateral ties have warmed in recent years with an exchange of high-level visits and joint military exercises. Trade reached 13.6 billion dollars in 2004 and is targeted to hit 30 billion dollars by 2010.
In January, India and China signed a landmark agreement on developing a joint strategy to secure global energy assets for the world's two most-populous nations.
The agreement was preceded by both countries winning a joint bid for Petro-Canada's 37 percent stake in Syrian oil fields for 573 million dollars.
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