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Contact with

captors will be

made within

36 hours: India

SRINAGAR: Indian authorities said on Thursday that talks with guerrillas holding four Westerners hostage in Kashmir were moving towards a "peaceful resolution" of the seven-week ordeal.

However, they cautioned that negotiations could drag on, saying the two sides needed time to narrow differences.

Officials in Srinagar, the summer capital of India's Jammu and Kashmir state, told reporters that contact with Al-Faran militants had been made within the past 36 hours.

"Negotiations are moving forward to the peaceful resolution of the crisis," a state government spokesman said.

A police official said: "They're moving in the right direction and everything is all OK."

Authorities said a tape recording and photographs of the captive tourists, along with continued contacts through unidentified intermediarise, had raised hopes Al-Faran militants might release the men unharmed.

It was the first time officials had referred to more than one intermediary.

Al-Faran has demanded India release 15 jailed militants including three members of Pakistan-based Harkat-ul-Ansar, which New Delhi claims is linked to the hostage-takers.

Harkat-ul-Ansar, which had condemned the abductions, has denied any ties to Al-Faran.

India has repeatedly said it will not swap "criminals" or the three Harkat-ul-Ansar members - Sazad Afghani, Nazrrullah Langrayal and Massoud Azhar - for the hostages.-Reuter