AGRA, India, July 17 (Reuters) - India said on Tuesday that it hoped to "pick up the threads" from a failed summit with Pakistan after peace hopes rode a rollercoaster before slamming into a dead end over the decades-old Kashmir dispute.

External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh told a news conference that he was not disheartened by the breakdown of the talks, which came after cliffhanger negotiations in the Indian city of Agra, shortly before midnight on Monday.

"We will pick up the threads from the visit of the president of Pakistan," he said. "The caravan of peace will continue on its march and on some auspicious day it will reach its destination."

He said the summit could not be seen as a failure and the exercise had not been futile — but television images of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf being driven off to catch his plane home told a different story.