BANGALORE (India) - INDIA said on Wednesday it wanted to see China as a 'partner' while the Asian giants stake out a global role, a day after their foreign ministers met to defuse spiralling tensions over a festering border dispute.

But the two sides appeared to sidestep several contentious issues in a bilateral meeting on Tuesday, including visa policy and Beijing's support for projects in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, which India claims.

Both sides are trying to rein in rising rhetoric over reports of troop mobilisation along the border and more recently a planned visit by the Dalai Lama to an Indian state Beijing claims, stoking fears the rivalry could spiral out of control. Each side claims vast swathes of the other's territory along their 3,500-km (2,173-mile) Himalayan boundary, leading to occasional charges of border incursions.

Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna said India did not raise the issue of Chinese projects inside Pakistani Kashmir, while the Chinese defended their stand on a separate visa policy for Indians.

New Delhi sees a Chinese move to issue visas on loose sheets to Indian Kashmiris as an attempt to undermine its rule over the region that is at the core of its rivalry with Pakistan.

Differences also remained over the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama's visit to the disputed Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. Beijing sees the Dalai Lama's trip as encouraging the Tibetan struggle by undermining Chinese territorial integrity. -- REUTERS