Musharraf says 'no' to any nuke showdown

"The days when Pakistan and India were threatening each other with an exchange of nuclear strikes are long gone," Musharraf told the Kommersant business daily.

"But even in those days, we kept our cool and stressed that arguments had to be resolved through dialogue," he added.

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Yet Musharraf stressed that Pakistan had to keep nuclear military parity with India.

"A balance of conventional weapons and the need to keep up this balance will make sure that no one can win a war, and therefore prevent one," the Pakistani leader said.

"The tensions will ease if, through dialogue, we find the root causes of our conflict."

Tensions between Pakistan and India are rooted in Kashmir, a scenic mountain region straddling both countries which remains divided by a de facto border along ceasefire lines dating back to the first of two wars waged over it.

Russia has been a traditional ally of India over the past decades and has accused the Pakistani leadership of supporting terrorist networks including rebels in separatist Chechnya.

But Musharraf stressed that relations between Russia and his country "have warmed noticably" since his visit here for talks with President Vladimir Putin in February.

"Both sides expressed a will to expand their dialogue at those talks," he said.

Musharraf's comments in Kommersant came just one month after he publicly rejected any freeze in Pakistan's nuclear program and hinted at upgrading technology to strengthen national security.

Pakistan launched its nuclear program after India staged its first nuclear test in 1974.

It conducted five tests in a tit-for-tat response to similar detonations by India in May 1998.

Pakistan is estimated to possess between 25 and 50 nuclear warheads, according to Jane's Defense Weekly.

ANI adds: India and Pakistan can achieve a peaceful solution to their dispute over Kashmir only through bilateral dialogue, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Monday.

Speaking to reporters, Annan described the deadlock in the Indian subcontinent as having complicated the situation in the South Asian region, and added that he had been making sincere efforts to get the leadership in the two countries to start a bilateral dialogue.