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| PMs hold India-Bangladesh talks | |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is to meet her Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh as her first official visit to India gets under way. | |
| The two neighbours are expected to sign a range of agreements including treaties on tackling cross-border crime and combating terrorism. | |
| India has also pledged continued economic assistance to Bangladesh. | |
| Ties between the two have improved after Sheikh Hasina's Awami League-led government came to power last year. | |
| Since then Bangladesh has cracked down on Indian separatist rebels sheltering in the country and handed over several senior rebel leaders to India. | |
| Nearly 200 fighters belonging to rebel groups in Assam and Tripura have fled the crackdown in Bangladesh and some have already surrendered. | |
| And ahead of the meeting between the two prime ministers, Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said that India was looking into the "entire range of developmental issues of direct interest to Bangladesh". | |
| This included economic assistance in developing railway infrastructure, transportation and investment and trade, she said. | This included economic assistance in developing railway infrastructure, transportation and investment and trade, she said. |
| "We seek to revive those physical and emotional links which remain disrupted since independence. We also seek their understanding and co-operation on our security and connectivity needs," she said. | |
| Water dispute | |
| But the BBC's Ethirajan Anbarasan in Dhaka says, the two countries still have a range of contentious issues to resolve ranging from the sharing of river waters to demarcation of a maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal. | |
| Bangladesh and India share more than 50 rivers but Bangladesh believes it is not getting enough water, as India has built a number of dams upstream, our correspondent says. | |
| The dispute over the maritime border is important as it is believed that there may be vast gas and oil deposits in the Bay of Bengal. | |
| Bangladesh's Foreign Minister, Dipu Moni, told the BBC that the country was prepared to go the UN if bilateral negotiations failed to solve the maritime boundary dispute. | |
| Nevertheless correspondents say the two countries are likely to sign half a dozen agreements during Sheikh Hasina's visit. | |
| They include an agreement on "mutual legal assistance in criminal matters", combating international terrorism and cracking down on organised crime and drug trafficking. | They include an agreement on "mutual legal assistance in criminal matters", combating international terrorism and cracking down on organised crime and drug trafficking. |
| Agreements on closer economic ties and energy co-operation are also expected to be signed. | |