Nepal offers venue for Indo-Pak talks

Referring to his meeting with Vajpayee in Colombo on the sidelines of SAARC, Koirala said he told him quot;to settle the Kalapani border issue as early as possible on the basis of historical documents and other valid paper.

Unless India could come up with quot;new valid papers or valid historical documentary proof about Kalapani, an arid mountainous area 415 km northwest of here, quot;It belongs to Nepal, he said.

He said he also sought quot;Indias help for bilateral trade and economic cooperation and discussed a number of other issues including a multi-billion dollar hydro-power project in the west.

quot;Indias response was positive and Vajpayee hasagreed to hold ministerial level talks on the various bilateral issues soon, he added.

Koirala said he also held talks in Sri Lanka with Bhutanese delegation leader Dorje Thinley about the problem of Bhutanese refugees in Nepal.

More than 100,000 Bhutanese refugees of Nepalese descent have been living in Nepal since 1990 after they fled their homeland when the Bhutan government introduced laws forcing people to adopt Bhutanese cultural traditions.

Anyone who failed to follow the rules faced severe punishment.

quot;I found Bhutanese attitude, to some extent changed than previous meetings and the Bhutanese delegation leader has agreed to a foreign ministerial level dialogue to solve the refugee problem, Koirala said.

Seven rounds of foreign minisetrial talks between Thimpu and Kathmandu in the past have all failed to find a solution.

Nepal wants to repatriate all the refugees, but Bhutan insists only those who were forcibly evicted will be taken back, while those who left of their own accord cannotreturn.

Koirala said Nepal would host the 11th SAARC summit toward the end of October or early November next year.