By Ian Gunn BBC correspondent in Whistler, Canada

Foreign ministers from the G8 group of leading industrial nations have gathered in the Canadian mountain resort of Whistler for two days of meetings.

The current tensions between India and Pakistan are expected to top the agenda and the ministers will decide whether to send an envoy to the region.

The ministers will also discuss the conflict in the Middle East and global efforts against terrorism - with US Secretary of State Colin Powell raising the possibility of an interim Palestinian state.

Very few protesters have gathered at the meeting

The meetings are part of preparations for a G8 leaders' summit which takes place in another Canadian resort later this month.

Nestled in a luxury resort in Canada's coastal mountains these meetings could not seem further removed from the tensions of South Asia or the Middle East, but for the next two days the issue will dominate the agenda here.

As well as Mr Powell, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and Britain's Jack Straw will attend - all of whom have taken leading roles in recent weeks in trying to diffuse the current stand-off between India and Pakistan.

And their interest in the issue will be likely to dominate the agenda.

Diplomatic push

The Canadian host of this meeting, Foreign Minister Bill Graham, may be sent to the region immediately following these discussions as a show of the G8's concern about the tensions over Kashmir, even as those tensions appear to ease.

The Middle East conflict is also expected to be discussed, but Canadian officials are playing down expectations of concrete action from the G8, suggesting the US has little appetite for another international initiative while its own efforts continue.

This is also the first major meeting of G8 foreign ministers since the attacks on the United States last September so the global fight against terrorism, tightened immigration regulations and nuclear decommissioning will also be addressed.

Small protest

This isolated mountain retreat was chosen in part because of the threat of noisy anti-globalisation protests.

Canadian police are maintaining a visible presence here, but so far fewer than 50 protestors have arrived outside on a pair of hired buses.

They stood in their officially appointed place beside an open gate, chanting occasionally, almost outnumbered by the media.

To their evident surprise, two protestors were eventually allowed inside the security cordon and were granted a brief meeting with Mr Graham.

They told the minister of their vision of what the world's most powerful diplomats should be discussing: human rights, Third World poverty and environmental degradation.