Authorities in Azad Jammu and Kashmir have been told to speed up repairs on a road for bus service linking the two parts of the disputed region, officials said. The service, to start from April 7, is the first tangible fruit of 13 months of dialogue between the neighbours who have fought three wars, two over Kashmir which each hold in part but claim in full. "We have been asked by Islamabad to make the road ready for traffic before April 7," minister for communications and works in Azad Kashmir Chaudhry Tariq Farooq told AFP on late Friday.

The minister who travelled on the portion of occupied Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road on Friday in Azad Kashmir along with the highway department officials said they had also been asked to construct a bridge linking the two parts.

Farooq was referring to the footbridge over the water channel that marks the de facto border between India and Pakistan in the region and is known as Line of Control.

The United Nations Military Observers earlier used the bridge for crossing but that movement has long come to an end, mainly due to hostilities along the military line.

Highway department official Mubashir ul Haq said an order for a bridge with steel decking had been placed with a UK firm at a cost of Rs 50 million (0.8 million dollars).

"They were to provide the bridge in April, but now we have requested them to send it earlier than that," he said.

Farooq said he had requested Islamabad to provide funds and expertise so that the road and bridge were made ready before April 7.

"I am happy the bus will again run on this route after more than five decades, enabling the Kashmiris to travel from one part to the other without visa and passport," he said.

The pre-1947 route is in good condition up to the border town of Chakothi, 58 kilometers (36 miles) south of the state capital Muzaffarabad, but a three-kilometer patch stretching beyond Chakothi is dilapidated.

A barrier erected by Pakistan army at the end of Chakothi restricted traffic beyond that point for being highly vulnerable to cross border shelling which came to end after the two armies struck a historic cease-fire in November 2003.

Farooq said his department had geared up for the repair of the road following the agreement to start bus service between the divided Kashmiri capitals on Wednesday.

"If weather permits we can divert the whole resources to make this road ready by April 7," he said.

Azad Kashmir is in the grip of torrential rains and snowfall since early this month and Farooq said bad weather was holding up repair work.

"Nevertheless, our staff is fully prepared," Farooq said.

The highway department's Haq said part of the road was infested with anti-personnel mines. The army had said it would soon remove the mines, he said.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2005