Dhaka, Nov 16: Bangladesh and Myanmar today kicked off talks on maritime disputes here, a week after they resolved a standoff over Yangon's bid to explore hydrocarbon in the Bay of Bengal.

Foreign ministry officials said Dhaka and Yangon began the two-day talks on maritime boundary delimitation here as a high-powered Myanmar delegation arrived here to adopt a mechanism to end the dispute.

The talks began today with additional foreign secretary MAK Mahmud leading the Bangladesh side and Myanmar's deputy foreign minister Maung Moyint heading the 11-member delegation, a foreign ministry spokesman told without any immediate elaboration.

But foreign ministry officials earlier said Bangladesh would press for demarcating the maritime boundary between the two nations on the basis of "equity" while Myanmar earlier argued for an "equal-distance method" of delimitation.

The meeting is the fourth of its kind on maritime issue, which remained stalled for 22 years until the two countries held their first round of discussions on March 30 this year in Dhaka.

Bangladesh's foreign ministry today said the "crisis in the Bay of Bengal" ended with the withdrawal of the Yangon-engaged South Korean exploration rig and their warships but reports from frontiers said both the countries still kept an intensified vigil in borders as the two sides began the talks in Dhaka.

"Myanmar's trespass on Bangladesh waters (however) is not on our agenda, we will focus on setting a method of principles for delimitation in the meeting... If we reach a consensus over the issue the tension will ease automatically," a senior foreign ministry official had said yesterday.

Foreign Secretary Mohammad Touhid Hossain had gone to Yangon for talks while Dhaka simultaneously explored its diplomatic channels engaging South Korea and China, a close ally of the junta-ruled Myanmar to end the standoff.

In view of the initiatives, Daewoo declined to continue exploration removing its installation from the disputed waters, a move which was followed by the withdrawal of Myanmar navy vessels from the "vicinity".

Last month, Bangladesh also held a three-day talk with India on the issue after a pause of 28 years.

The two countries only agreed on further discussions on the issue as they could not reach a consensus on the mid-flow of the cross-boundary Hariabhanga river, considered crucial for demarcation of maritime border.

Bangladesh officials had, earlier, said that Dhaka needed to reach an agreement on maritime boundary with its two neighbours. As a signatory to the United Nations Conventions of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), it would have to take up the claim with the UN body on the Limits of the Continental Shelf beyond the exclusive economic zone by 2011.

The issue of "starting point" on how to mark from the coastline the exclusive economic zone has overlapped claims of Bangladesh, India and Myanmar because of the funnel-like shape of the Bay of Bengal, said an official.

Bureau Report