ISLAMABAD, May 7 (IslamOnline.net) - Pakistan and India are likely to sign a formal bilateral agreement to ban nuclear tests in the subcontinent, according to a source in the Pakistani foreign office.

Pakistan had previously announced a unilateral moratorium over further nuclear tests. But there was no formal understanding between the two countries over future tests.

However, the Pakistani source told IOL Thursday, May 6, that Indian authorities have responded positively to a Pakistani communication through diplomatic channels about a formal agreement to ban nuclear tests.

"When officials from both sides meet to discuss the nuclear CBMs (Confidence-Building Measures), this proposed agreement would be on top of the agenda," an official of the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said.

He added modalities of the test ban agreement are being worked out by the two sides and an informal agreement has already been reached.

The two nuclear rivals are to discuss nuclear confidence building measures later this month as a part of the ongoing process of normalization of relations. At various levels, the two south Asian rivals have already started to talk about confrontational issues such as deployment of troops on the borders and opening of trade and commerce.

But the nuclear confidence building measures are considered the most important part of the bilateral relations between the two countries as both are declared nuclear states.

Experts, meanwhile, pin great importance on the proposed agreement. "If its true, this is going to be the first agreement of its kind on the regional level in this part of the world" Sohail A Nasir, an analyst and a writer for Atomic Science Bulletin of America, told IslamOnline.net.

He said Pakistan and India have been discussing various other CBMs also but the nuclear CBMs are always tricky and it is always very difficult to achieve anything concrete on these in the absence of sincerity and mutual trust.

If reached, the test ban agreement would be the first of its kind in the region. The two countries have been exchanging various proposals on the nuclear issues but none has materialized because of political understanding of each other on both sides.

India had earlier proposed a "no-first use" of nuclear weapons whereas Pakistan wanted to go for an MOU over test bans.

Besides the test ban agreement, the two sides are also preparing an agreement to formalize an earlier understanding of prior notification of any missile tests. India and Pakistan had reached an MOU on prior notification in 1992 but this could not be materialized to an agreement.

Also on the agenda the two days deliberation in the last week of May, are the updating of the list of nuclear installations. For the last two decades, the two rivals have been exchanging the same lists, which many believe are fake, of nuclear sites which are not to be targeted in case of a conflict.

The nuclear CBMs are aimed at reducing the risk of a nuclear war, both intentional or accidental.

It was widely believed in the west that both countries were on the brink of nuclear exchange in 2002 when military tensions were at the highest level before U.S. intervened to subside these through shuttle diplomacy.