Pakistan for tripartite talks on Kashmir row

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz spoke in a meeting with leaders from the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, an alliance of political groups in Indian-controlled Kashmir that wants independence from India's rule.

"We are committed to a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute in line with the wishes and aspirations of the Kashmiri people," Aziz told reporters. "We have always said that there are three stake holders in the Kashmir issue the people of Kashmir, Pakistan and India."

The delegation of separatists arrived Thursday in Pakistan's portion of Kashmir on a historic bus that resumed service in April to link the two parts of Kashmir.

"We feel that the time has come when India and Pakistan have to move forward vis-a-vis the dispute on Kashmir and the people of Kashmir have to be a part of it to make this process a complete one and successful one," Umar Farooq, head of the delegation, said at a news conference.

Pakistan and India both claim Kashmir in its entirety.

The two countries initiated steps more than a year ago to normalise relations and try to settle the Kashmir issue. The nuclear-armed neighbours have fought two wars over Kashmir since their independence from British rule in 1947.

Pakistan will accept a solution for Kashmir, which would be acceptable to all the three parties India, Pakistan and Kashmiris, Aziz said.

Meanwhile, Pakistani Informa-tion Minister Sheikh Rashid said yesterday he plans to travel by bus to the Indian-held part of Kashmir, in the first visit of its kind by a senior Islamabad official.

Rashid, the government's public face in the Pakistani media, said he wanted to visit his ancestral home in the divided Himalayan region, from which his parents migrated after the partition of the subcontinent in 1947.

"I will file my application for a travel permit on Tuesday," the minister told AFP.