No Kashmir settlement without trilateral talks

"India and Pakistan will never be able to resolve the dispute over Kashmir bilaterally," Yasin Malik, the chairman of pro-independence Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), told AFP by telephone from New Delhi.

"How can the two nations resolve the Kashmir issue without our inclusion? We are the basic party. We are the sufferers," said Malik after meeting Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri in the Indian capital.

Kasuri and Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh on Monday ended the first round of ministerial level talks in three years, reporting progress on peripheral issues. But they remained far apart over Kashmir.

A deadly revolt has raged against New Delhi's rule since 1989 in the Indian-held part of the scenic Himalayan region.

"I told Kasuri trilateral talks are key to the resolution of the Kashmir issue," said Malik, whose group wants reunification of the divided region followed by its independence. "Kasuri said he had taken up the issue (of including Kashmiris) with the Indians."

He added he and party colleagues collected signatures from over 1.4 million Kashmiris in Indian-administered Kashmir urging trilateral talks among India, Pakistan and Kashmiris.