India and Pakistan are hoping to resolve the Sir Creek dispute in December because any delay could “internationalise” the issue under a UN convention to which both are signatories.

Sources said both sides were working for a breakthrough in the next round of the composite dialogue which is scheduled in New Delhi on December 2-3.

Under the UN Convention on Law of the Sea, all maritime boundary conflicts have to be resolved by 2009, failing which the UN may declare disputed areas as “international waters”.

Sir Creek a marshland that separates the nuclear neighbors on the Arabian Sea, is a 96km strip of water in the Rann of Kutch —between Gujarat and Sindh province in Pakistan — that opens into the Arabian sea. Eight rounds of talks and a joint survey have not solved differences.

The issue dates back to 1914 when a pact, signed between the then Government of Sindh and Rao Maharaj of Kutch, agreed to a boundary line running through the middle of the creek as a border between the two states.

The final demarcation was completed in 1925 in which the boundary was shown by a “green line” on the eastern side of the creek.

India contends that the “green line” was simply an indicative line and the boundary should be defined by the “mid-channel” of the creek as shown on the map of 1925. But Pakistan believes the notion of “mid-channel” is applicable only to navigable channels and this one was not.

The determination of the boundaries in marshland, would in turn allow Pakistan and India to notify the limits of their maritime economic zones as demanded by the UN Convention.