Pakistan accuses India of contradictions

After two days of peace talks with his Indian counterpart in New Delhi, Kasuri told the Hindi news channel Aaj Tak he had outlined efforts made by Pakistan to stem the flow of rebels into Indian-held Kashmir.

"I told the (Indian) foreign minister (Natwar Singh) how much we have done to stop militants coming into Kashmir and if some people are crossing over, you are building a wall there, besides having troops on the border," he said referring to a fence India is constructing to try to halt infiltration.

The fence is to run along the 230-kilometre (140-mile) international border and 750-kilometre (465-mile) de-facto border known as the Line of Control.

The Indian army says about 90 percent of the fence has been completed.

Kasuri said many Indians themselves had told him the numbers of militants crossing into Indian-Kashmir had come down.

"There are many contradictions in the statements made by your own people," he told the channel.

The charges followed comments Monday by Singh who said the issue of militants slipping across the border, "remains a serious concern" for New Delhi.

Kasuri stressed that Pakistan too wanted peace in Indian Kashmir, where an Islamic insurgency, which New Delhi says is sponsored by Islamabad, has claimed about 40,000 lives so far.

The Pakistani minister noted "positive thinking" from both neighbours on proposals for a bus service linking Indian and Pakistani zones of Kashmir.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz stressed yesterday that "substantive" talks on Kashmir, the cause of over half a century of hostility between India and Pakistan, were key to advancing the nascent peace process.

"We ... feel we need to have substantive talks on Jammu and Kashmir so that this core issue heads towards resolution," the new Pakistani premier said in an interview with Dawn newspaper.

"I think other peripheral issues will take their own course."