The hockey federations of both Pakistan and India have been reportedly in contacts and negotiating for months to revive the bilateral hockey series that were suspended since 2006, official sources said on Monday.

The sources from the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) on Monday told Xinhua that in first phase a group of Indian officials would reach Pakistan to start talks in the last week of January.

"Both sides (Pakistan and India) are on board and having negotiations to restart the visits of hockey teams on the basis of once in a year. Now, we have reached a point where everything is looking positive," said the official.

The source further added that the meeting between Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Indian Premier Manmohan Singh in April this year had played a vital role to restart sporting ties between the neighbors.

The last Indo-Pak hockey series was held in 2006 when both teams played three matches in each country. Pakistan won four and India succeeded in only one match while two matches were drawn.

After these two successful series in 2006 no bilateral hockey tour was arranged due to the tense political relations between the two arch-rival neighboring states.

Earlier on Saturday, Hockey India Secretary General Narinder Batra also told media that there were some positive signals for the resumption of bilateral series.

"If everything goes as per plan Pakistan will tour India at the end of March next year for five Test matches. Then India will visit Pakistan in May for another five Tests," Batra said.

PHF Secretary General Asif Bajwa has already invited Indian hockey officials to visit Pakistan for the final talks for these future plans.

According to the Pakistani officials, during this meeting, an agreement was likely to be inked by the both sides on the resumption of bilateral series.

PHF Secretary Bajwa has already gone to Qatar where Pakistan and Indian are featuring in a six-nation Asian Champions Trophy. According to the sources, his meeting with Indian officials on the sidelines of the tournament cannot be ruled out.

Pakistan's national cricket team has already reached India on Saturday to play a bilateral series of five limited-over matches against the hosts.

Pakistan's sports analysts hoped that the resumption of the cricket ties will also affect positively on the hockey affairs and people of both countries will see good and healthy sports competitions soon.