India is planning on reviving bilateral cricket ties with Pakistan by hosting a limited-overs series later this year.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India issued a statement on Monday saying it had invited Pakistan for a short series in December-January and that the details "will be worked out shortly.''

Pakistan last toured India in November 2007. Cricket ties between the neighbouring rivals were broken after a terror attack in Mumbai in 2008 for which India blames Pakistan. However, the teams have played each other in ICC tournaments, including the World Cup semi-final at Mohali last year.

Government involvement

The governments as well as the cricket boards of both countries have been trying to revive ties in recent months.

Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Zaka Ashraf said that the hard work of officials is paying off.

"It's an ice-breaking series because the glacier was not melting. It's the positive outcome of all the meetings which we held with them over the last six months,'' Ashraf said.

"Mr. (Narainswamy) Srinivasan called me up last night and even today in the morning. He informed me that he is going to put up the matter in today's BCCI working committee meeting. The series will be in India, so the venues depend on where the BCCI is comfortable.''

The matches are expected to be held during a break that a visiting England team will take on their long tour.

England are due to play four tests, five one-day internationals and two Twenty20 games from November to January. But they return home on December 22 and resume the tour on January 3 to play the limited-overs games.

Media reports said Pakistan's tour of India was likely to consist of three ODIs and two Twenty20 games.

The CNN-IBN news channel quoted sources as saying Chennai, Kolkata and Delhi were likely to host the one-dayers, while the two Twenty20 games would be played in Bangalore and Ahmedabad.