FOREIGN Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi will meet his Indian counterpart S.M. Krishna in New York on Sunday, hoping to get the peace process back on track.

Ties went into deep freeze after attacks on Mumbai in November. India has put on hold the five-year-old peace process, saying Pakistan must act decisively against the militants India holds responsible for the assault.

The United States wants the two countries to reduce tension and resume dialogue so Pakistan can focus on the war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda along the Afghan border.

Here are some questions and answers about prospects for the ministers' talks, which will follow a meeting between the foreign secretaries on Saturday.

Is a breakthrough likely?

No. Mr Qureshi told Reuters in a recent interview he does not expect any breakthrough in New York. But he said the talks might help pave the way for another meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani on the sidelines of a Commonwealth summit in Trinidad in November.

India and Pakistan have held three bilateral meetings on the sidelines of international gatherings since June. But the thaw has been undermined by political opposition in India and by what India sees as Pakistani foot-dragging in tackling the Lashkar-e-Taiba blamed for Mumbai attack.

Why is tension a worry?

Pakistan and India have fought three wars since independence and nearly went to war again in 2002. Both tested nuclear bombs in 1998. Pakistan is believed to have up to 50 nuclear warheads while India is believed to have up to 100. India came under huge domestic pressure to hit back at Pakistan after the Mumbai assault, with calls for strikes on suspected militant camps. Pakistan vowed to respond. Were there to be another big militant attack in India, the Indian government would again come under huge pressure to strike back.

It would be unlikely to do so as air strikes would have little impact. A full-scale conventional attack would run the risk of escalating out of control, raising the prospect that Pakistan might eventually use its nuclear bombs, if it felt its survival were threatened. Worry about conflict undermines investor confidence.

What does the rivalry mean for Afghanistan?

India and Pakistan are competing for influence in Afghanistan, which Pakistan has long regarded as a fall-back position in case of war with India.

Gen Stanley McChrystal, the top US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, highlighted this rivalry in an assessment of the Afghan war leaked to the media this week.

Increasing Indian influence in Afghanistan was likely to exacerbate regional tension and encourage Pakistani counter-measures in Afghanistan or India, he said.

What is the economic cost?

Decades of hostility between India and Pakistan, centred on their dispute over Kashmir, have crippled trade and investment.

Trade has picked up slightly since their peace process was launched in 2004 but Pakistan says full economic relations can only be established when there is a solution to the Kashmir issue. Areas of potential cooperation include energy pipelines from Iran and central Asia. The two countries also need to cooperate, or risk more hostility, over supplies of water from shared rivers.—Reuters