NEW DELHI, May 22 (Xinhua) -- India and Pakistan Tuesday will begin another round of talks to end their conflict over the Siachen glacier and discuss a proposal for withdrawing their troops from the icy battlefield, according to Indo-Asian News Service.

;  The two sides are said to be close to what could be a historic breakthrough on mutual withdrawal of troops from the 76-km long Siachen glacier, where thousands of soldiers have died not so much due to war, but because of altitude sickness, accidents and deadly avalanches.

    But the latest attack by militants on the eve of the Siachen talks and the second roundtable on Indian-controlled Kashmir, which will be chaired by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, can affect the atmospherics for the defense-secretary level talks on demilitarization of the glacier, sources said.

    During the two-day talks, the Indian side will be led by Indian Defense Secretary Shekhar Dutt and the Pakistani side will be headed by Lt Gen (retd.) Tariq W. Ghazi.

    New Delhi will press for marking of troop positions on a map as well as on the ground, Indian official sources said.

    Islamabad opposes authentication of ground positions on the Siachen, located at a height of 22,000 feet in the Himalayas, as it believes such an exercise would legitimize New Delhi's occupation of the strategic glacier in 1984.

    However, if both sides are able to resolve differences and pull off a breakthrough on the over-two-decades old issue, the deal could form the basis of a likely visit by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Pakistan later this summer.

    The talks on Siachen, part of the third round of composite dialogue between the two countries, will be followed by two-day talks on the demarcation of Sir Creek - the narrow strip of marshland that separates the two countries along their western border. Enditem