Pakistan will move halfway if India does on Kashmir

"Pakistan will move halfway if India does so," Musharraf told a seminar of South Asian journalists in the eastern city of Lahore.

In an interview with AFP on Thursday he expressed frustration at India's refusal to budge from its long-held stance, saying he was "not encouraged" by the vibes from New Delhi.

"The vibes that are now coming do not encourage a process of normalisation," he told AFP.

"Certainly the vibes should be much better than this...there ought to be a desire to move forward towards peace. While (from) there we get vibes in the opposite direction, they do not encourage peace."

His comments come on the eve of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz' departure on a three-nation tour that will take him to New Delhi for his first official visit and talks with counterpart Manmohan Singh on the peace process.

Musharraf Saturday said Pakistan had not dropped its long-term demand for a plebiscite to allow residents of the divided region to choose between rule by Pakistan or India, both of which claim it.

"Pakistan has not left its stated position on Kashmir, and will not do so unilaterally," he was quoted as saying by the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan.

"Both India and Pakistan will have to reconcile to bring peace and promote intra-regional cooperation."

He said the options he had publicly floated on alternative ways to deal with Kashmir were not formal solutions, merely ideas to be debated among the public and help policymakers finalise proposals.

"I have only identified geographical, ethnic and religious realities in Kashmir, just setting a direction to discuss different options."

Musharraf's suggestions include dividing Kashmir, currently administered in parts by India and Pakistan, into seven regions, which would be demilitarised and either placed under UN mandate, joint control or given independence.

Musharraf repeated his call that both India and Pakistan should go beyond their "stated positions" on Kashmir, which has triggered two of their three wars and made them enemies since 1948.

The dispute drew them to the brink of a nuclear conflict two years ago.

On Thursday Musharraf stressed that he would be flexible, but only if India matched his flexibility.

"We will be flexible, never unilateral," he told AFP.

"Why leave the plebiscite when the vibe on the other side is they don't want to move an inch beyond their stated position, that 'we are not moving an inch'?"

Singh during a visit Wednesday to Kashmir rejected division of the Himalayan region.