The leaders of India and Pakistan met Monday for the first time in four years, agreeing on a modest set of measures to improve relations after 50 years of hostility.

In a departure from the often venomous exchanges between the two countries in recent years, Indian Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral and Pakistan's Nawaz Sharif agreed to set up a hotline connecting their two capitals and to form joint committees to discuss the issues that led them to war three times since 1947."We have both agreed to have a clean slate," Gujral said after the 90-minute session, held on the sidelines of a seven-nation regional summit.

Although short on practical results, the meeting renewed optimism about the future of the impoverished South Asia region, which is trapped in a costly arms race.

Sharif said the two countries' foreign secretaries would continue to meet. "I intend to continue with these talks. These occasions do not come every day," he said.

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The two leaders appeared to hit it off well. Both recently took office and come from the Punjab region that was divided in 1947 when India was partitioned into Muslim Pakistan and India, which is mostly Hindu.

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