New Delhi - Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan met Thursday for their first formal talks since the deadly siege on Mumbai in 2008. Officials described the session as a cautious step in restoring trust between the two nations, who promised only that they would keep in touch, while agreeing that much mutual suspicion remains.

Neither side gave a date for a follow-up meeting after Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao met Pakistani Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir for more than three hours in a former palace amid the heavily guarded seat of government.

Rao said she told Pakistan that it had not gone far enough to dismantle terror networks on its soil and bring those responsible for the Mumbai siege to justice. India blames the Mumbai attacks on the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-i-Taiba, which remains intact.

India handed Pakistan three dossiers of information on more than a dozen suspected militants, including those linked to the Mumbai attacks; an al-Qaida-affiliated suspect who has issued threats against India; and 10 more Indian insurgents believed to be hiding in Pakistan.

"We went into today's talks with an open mind, but firmly conscious of the trust deficit between the two countries," Rao said. "Our aims were modest. But the chemistry was good. The meeting was useful."

The talks come at a pivotal time in the troubled region. The Obama administration has guided both sides to the table, hopeful that even a small thawing in relations could help the American military efforts in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Washington sees the meeting as a start to improving the outlook for stability in Afghanistan, where India and Pakistan are struggling for influence and, some experts say, hurting regional security. Washington believes that if decades-long tensions between India and Pakistan decrease, lslamabad will not have to worry about its eastern border with India. Instead, it could focus on fighting the Taliban, which is operating to its west, along the border with Afghanistan.

Pakistan's foreign minister told reporters that his country "welcomed India's focus on terrorism" during the talks. But he said that Pakistan also raised the emotional issue of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, which has been the cause of two of the three wars between the two nations.

Pakistani officials also wanted to discuss ongoing tensions over water from Himalayan rivers flowing down from Indian Kashmir into the Indus river basin in Pakistan. Pakistan says India is diverting water with the construction of barrages and dams, a charge India denies.

"It is unfair and unrealistic and, in our view, counterproductive to ... keep the focus" only on Mumbai, Bashir told reporters. "Otherwise, we get caught in a time warp. ... One cannot be dismissive of the Kashmir issue, and any effort to be dismissive of this issue will not be healthy."

Before the Mumbai attacks, the two nations were making historic progress on trade issues and were even close to reaching an agreement on Kashmir. But the process started to unravel in August 2008, when Pakistan's leader Pervez Musharraf fell from power.

Few experts expected a breakthrough on Thursday, which India's home minister had termed "talks about talks." But the meeting was seen as a first step.

Pakistan is trying seven men on charges that they orchestrated the Mumbai attacks, which killed 166 people - including six Americans - and brought India's largest city to a standstill. Lashkar-i-Taiba, the militant group blamed for the assault, continues to operate relatively freely in the Pakistani city of Lahore, however. Its leader Hafiz Saeed remains free, because of proof of his involvement was "literature," Bashir said Thursday. Pakistan has made that claim before, and it is deeply frustrating to India.

"Today, India and Pakistan have just broken the ice, with the U.S. turning on the heat, of course," said retired Gen. Ashok Mehta, a security analyst in New Delhi.

"Even in the worst of times, you have to talk to your neighbor. But internally Pakistan has never looked weaker. Until there is real action against the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks, all talking will seem futile. At the same time, we must talk, because one day, not long from now, there will be a government in Pakistan strong enough to secure the country."