Kashmir separatists hold talks with India

Kashmir's separatist alliance leaders held secret talks with the country's home minister in a sign of efforts to resume peace talks to end a decades-old insurgency, a report said on Tuesday.

The All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference leader, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, held talks with home minister Palaniappan Chidambaram in New Delhi at the weekend, The Hindu newspaper reported.

Any sign of peace talks may help reduce tension in the state, the focus of conflict between India and Pakistan for decades.

The Hurriyat has urged New Delhi to pull out troops, release prisoners and end human rights violations before resuming peace talks.

Farooq denied holding a meeting with Chidambaram in New Delhi, but said there have been "some back-channel contacts between the Hurriyat and the government."

Dialogue between the government and the separatists broke down in 2006. Prime minister Manmohan Singh offered to resume talks last month during a visit to Kashmir.

Officials say more than 47,000 have been killed in the past 20 years in Kashmir, where anti-India sentiment still runs deep.

With violence down in recent years, India began withdrawing troops from Kashmir's main towns and handed over law and order to the police, giving signals they were getting ready for peace talks.