By Zeeshan Haider
ISLAMABAD, Oct 3 (Reuters) - India and Pakistan signed two agreements on security cooperation on Monday as their foreign ministers discussed a tentative peace process, although progress on their core dispute over Kashmir was likely to take more time.
India's Natwar Singh and his Pakistani counterpart, Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri, said their talks were going well as officials signed pacts on advance warning of ballistic missile tests and on a hotline between their coast guards.
Later, senior Indian Foreign Ministry official Shayam Saran said both ministers were satisfied with their talks but while they were committed to finding a solution to their decades-old dispute over Kashmir, that needed patience.
"We are dealing with a complicated legacy. It requires patience," Indian Foreign Secretary Saran told a news conference.
"It is very clear that both sides are commited to finding a mutually acceptable solution to Jammu and Kashmir ... we should understand that this is a process which may take a little time, but it is a process that is progressing."
The nuclear-armed neighbours have gone to war three times since independence in 1947, twice over Kashmir, and they nearly fought a fourth war in 2002 before launching a peace process early last year.
Both countries claim the Muslim-majority Himalayan region but it remains divided by a ceasefire line, the result of their first war over the territory.
India wants Pakistan to do more to stop militants slipping into Indian Kashmir. Muslim Pakistan says Indian forces should stop rights abuses in the region and begin pulling out.
While both sides have said their peace process is irreversible, Saran said as long as militant infiltration and violence continued they would be issues between the two.
"The pace process that is taking place .... can easily be derailed if there is a major terrorist incident. So I don't think it is in either country's interest to allow this thing to happen."
SLOW PROGRESS
Pakistani Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan said Pakistan would never accept the Kashmir ceasefire line as the border because that was not acceptable to the Kashmiri people. He said progress was being made, if slowly.
"We would, on our part, like to address all the issues, particularly Jammu and Kashmir on a much faster pace ... but things are progressing," Khan told reporters.
Tens of thousands of people have died in Indian Kashmir since 1989, when a separatist revolt against Indian rule erupted.
Saran said India welcomed a Pakistani assurance that what he called cross-border terrorism would be stopped, but he said India would have to see evidence of that on the ground. Khan denied cross-border terrorism was taking place.
Despite their differences, a ceasefire has held in Kashmir since late 2003 and the two sides have launched a so-called composite dialogue on a range of issues, including Kashmir.
While progress on Kashmir has been scant, they have reached agreement in several other areas including the restoration of diplomatic, sports and transport links, as well as on some trade and prisoner exchanges.
The two sides have also been discussing the withdrawal of troops from a disputed Himalayan glacier and a maritime border row, but Saran said no agreements were reached on those disputes.
The two ministers would meet on Tuesday under the framework of an India-Pakistan joint commission, which has not met for 16 years, Saran said.
The commission provided a forum for issues not included in the main talks, such as health, agriculture and tourism, he said.
Saran said India expected the two countries to open consulates in each other's commercial capitals -- Karachi in Pakistan and Mumbai in India -- in January.