The two-day talks between Pakistan and India over the construction of a controversial barrage have been postponed, the state-run PTV reported on Monday.

"New dates for the talks would be announced later," the television quoted foreign office sources as saying. The talks were originally scheduled to start on Tuesday in Islamabad.

No reason was given for the postponement of talks on Wullar Barrage navigation project.

However, private Geo TV quoted Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam as saying that the talks were postponed because India Secretary for Water Resources J. Hari Narayan could not travel to Islamabad due to his personal reasons.

India started building the barrage in 1984 on a tributary of Indus river Jhelum river, which runs through the disputed Jammu and Kashmir.

India wants to build the barrage across the mouth of the Wullar lake downstream from the Jhelum to make the river navigable during the dry season.

But Pakistan says that it would be used to store water instead and would deprive its farms of irrigation water, violating the 1960 Indus Water Treaty.

(Xinhua News Agency April 18, 2006)