Pakistan reiterates resolve to make peace with India

Pakistani Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali Saturday called his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh and reiterated his government's resolve to bring about durable peace between the two countries, according to the Associated Press of Pakistan.

Congratulating Singh on his assumption of office of the Indian prime minister, Jamali said Pakistan is heartened by Singh's earlier positive statements reflecting India's desire to improve the bilateral relations.

He said Pakistan sincerely believes that peace and tension-free relations are important for the prosperity and progress of both countries and that peace is the need and desire of the people.

The leadership of both countries have to play a vital role in overcoming hurdles that may come during the process, Jamali stressed.

Jamali said Pakistan is looking forward to an early resumption of foreign secretary level talks so that the process of dialogue between the two countries could move forward.

Officials from Pakistan and India in February agreed to hold foreign secretary level talks in June and foreign minister level talks in August. The dialogue process, however, becomes uncertain after India put off the expert level talks on nuclear weapons scheduled for May 25-26 due to the change of the Indian government.

Singh said that his government would move forward with a positive approach for improvement of relations with Pakistan.

"We should continue to move forward with confidence building measures as this would facilitate and pave the way for discussions on Kashmir," Singh noted.

Referring to the cease-fire along the Line of Control in Kashmir which has been implemented for six months, Singh said thetruce should continue as it helps in creating an atmosphere for purposeful dialogues.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf called Singh last weekend.They agreed to move ahead with the dialogue process that started early this year to find ways and means for resolving all the outstanding issues including Kashmir between the two neighbors.

Source: Xinhua