Pakistan on Saturday announced to start issuance of special entry permits next week for those whowant to travel in the Kashmir bus service, beginning on April 7.

"Applications Forms for the intending travelers on the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus service shall be available with the Office of the Deputy Commissioner Muzaffarabad, the designated authority, as well as other deputy commissioners in the respectivedistricts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir from Monday," a Pakistan Foreign Office statement said in Islamabad.

Pakistan and India agreed last month to launch a landmark bus service linking Muzaffarabad and Srinagar, respective headquartersof Pakistan-held and India-held Kashmir.

The bus talks had been deadlocked by a disagreement over India's insistence that passports be used as travel documents, which Pakistan says would compromise Kashmir's disputed status.

However, the two sides agreed when the Indian Minister for External Affairs Natwar Singh traveled to Pakistan last month to use entry permits in place of passports once identities of the travelers are verified.

The two sides also say they are planning another bus service between the Pakistani city of Lahore and the Indian city of Amritsar and a rail link between Pakistan's Sindh province and theIndian side's Rajasthan.

Xinhua