India and China have agreed to revive the secretary-level bilateral mechanism to address the boundary issue, official sources said on Thursday.

The Joint Working Group will meet in Beijing [Images] on March 30 and 31, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Liu Jianchao said.

Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Wu Dawei and Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran will take part in the meeting and discuss the 'guiding principles' that can lead to a mutually acceptable resolution to the boundary issue, sources said.

The meeting will be held before Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's maiden visit to India on April 9.

Wen, at a recent press conference in Beijing, had said one of the items on his agenda during his New Delhi visit would be to discuss the boundary issue, which he described as an issue 'left over from history'.

The last JWG meeting was held in New Delhi on November 21, 2002. However, not much progress was made.

The JWG mechanism was established after the visit of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to China in December 1988.

When former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited Beijing in June, 2003, he and Wen decided to appoint special representatives to explore the framework for boundary settlement.

The special representative-level negotiations had nearly replaced the JWG till now. Thus, the 15th meeting of the JWG will revive the boundary negotiation mechanism after a 28-month break.

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