Indian foreign secretary Nirupama Rao and her Pakistan counterpart Salman Bashir held talks late Sunday in the Bhutanese capital Thimphu -- the first high-level meeting between the nuclear-armed neighbours since July.

"They agreed on the need for a constructive dialogue between India and Pakistan to resolve all outstanding issues," according to a joint statement that described the discussions as "useful and frank".

"They affirmed the need to carry forward the dialogue process," the statement said.

The meeting failed to produce a date for an expected visit to India this year by Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who last held talks with his Indian counterpart S.M. Krishna in Islamabad in July.

The talks in Thimphu took place on the sidelines of a South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) conference.

India suspended a peace dialogue with Pakistan after the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, which claimed 166 lives, but the two countries last year began to explore a resumption of structured talks.

India accuses Pakistan of failing to crack down sufficiently on militant groups on its territory, including those which New Delhi blames for the Mumbai attacks.

Relations between the two countries, which have fought three wars since the subcontinent was partitioned in 1947, have been plagued by border and resource disputes, and accusations of Pakistani militant activity against India.

Two of the three wars were over the disputed Kashmir region, and Kashmiri militants have been fighting New Delhi's rule for two decades in an insurgency that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.