By Krittivas Mukherjee

NEW DELHI, July 1 (Reuters) - India is ready to keep talking to arch-rival Pakistan, but a stalled peace process can resume only if Islamabad acts against the planners of the Mumbai attack, India's foreign minister said on Wednesday.

"The stated position of India remains consistent that we are not afraid to talk. We certainly will keep talking," S.M Krishna told reporters.

"But at the same time we expect Pakistan to come out with certain concrete measures which are visible so that people of India and the world at large could realise Pakistan is serious about punishing those culprits and then reassuring India that such incidents will not occur."

India is trying to help the credibility of Pakistan's civilian government in the face of military hawks in Islamabad and Krishna's comments came days after he met his Pakistani counterpart in Italy.

But New Delhi is also walking a fine line - keeping the door open for an eventual resumption of full dialogue without appearing to go soft on its nuclear-armed rival with whom it has fought three wars.

Pakistan has been pushing for the resumption of five-year-long peace talks broken off by India after November's attacks on Mumbai that killed 175 people and worsened relations between the nuclear-armed rivals.

India blames the attacks on Pakistan-based militants and wants Islamabad to act against them. (Editing by Richard Balmforth)

AlertNet news is provided by