THIMPHU, Bhutan (Reuters) - The prime ministers of India and Pakistan will hold talks on Thursday, their first meeting in nine months that is seen as another attempt to improve frayed ties.

Leaders of South Asian nations attend the 16th summit of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation in Thimphu April 28, 2010. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri

India halted peace talks with Pakistan after the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, saying the process could be revived only if Islamabad acted against Pakistan-based militants it blamed for the killings.

No breakthrough is expected in the meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani, which analysts say may have a limited aim of keeping alive the idea of engagement.

Their tension spills over into Afghanistan, where both seek influence, complicating U.S. efforts to find a solution to the nine-year-old war there. Washington sees Pakistan as key to any negotiated settlement because of its old links with the Taliban.

Gilani and Singh are in Bhutan for a summit of South Asian leaders.

“It has been agreed through diplomatic channels that prime ministers of India and Pakistan will hold a bilateral meeting at Thimphu on Thursday,” the Indian foreign ministry said in a statement.

The Pakistani ministry issued the same statement. Neither gave any information about what the two leaders might discuss.

The two sides have been tentative about engaging since Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao met her Pakistan counterpart Salman Bashir in New Delhi in February but failed to achieve a breakthrough.

That meeting, nonetheless, was seen as a small step towards repairing ties between the two South Asian rivals who have fought three wars since their independence from Britain in 1947.

AVERT BREAKDOWN

Differences over the nature of talks have held up a further meeting, as Pakistan wants India to restart the peace process, while India wants to go slow until Islamabad acts against the Mumbai attack planners.[ID:nLDE63J1JR]

In a move that could aid the Mumbai attack probe, India said it had been assured by Washington of getting access to a Chicago man who pleaded guilty of working with the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba to plan the strike.

New Delhi says it could get more information on militant networks targeting India if it was allowed to interrogate David Headley.

Although Singh and Gilani briefly exchanged pleasantries in Washington this month, a meeting in the Bhutanese capital Thimphu will be their first substantial contact since controversial talks in Egypt in July when the two agreed not to make the peace process conditional on actions against terrorism.

That move was slammed by Indian opposition groups as diluting India’s stand that peace talks could only resume when Pakistan acted against the planners of the attack. The protests forced the government into the defensive on its Pakistan policy.

SUPPORT AT HOME

At this stage there is little political opposition to Singh’s latest peace bid, but any misstep will likely be panned by his detractors, possibly even including a section within his own Congress party that remains hawkish towards Pakistan.

In an interview with Press Trust of India news agency published on Wednesday, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi sought to underline India’s differing political view on Pakistan, saying Singh was being thwarted by his own party.

“I think, he (Singh) is a well meaning individual, he has a vision, he wants to leave a legacy behind, he is an academic, he is an economist,” Qureshi was quoted as saying.

“He understands the benefits that can accrue to the region if there is normalisation ... But it seems that elements within the Congress are not giving him the support he should be given.”

Thursday’s meeting could set the stage for the foreign ministers of the two sides and their top diplomats to prepare the agenda for a more detailed engagement, analysts said.

And given the strong domestic sensitivities of the two countries, it was unlikely that the two leaders would want to take bold steps forward.

“There will be no breakthrough, but they will want to avert a breakdown, which is a familiar pattern, particularly after the Mumbai attacks,” said Uday Bhaskar, head of National Maritime Foundation, a New Delhi-based strategic affairs think-tank.