Prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Pakistan saw India's offer of talks 'positively', saying solutions to problems between the two countries cannot be found through wars.
Prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani today said Pakistan saw India's offer of talks "positively", saying solutions to problems between the two countries cannot be found through wars.
Welcoming his counterpart Manmohan Singh's offer of talks with Pakistan, Gilani said, "Wars are not the solution, dialogue is the only solution".
Singh's remarks were an outcome of the meeting between the two premiers at Sharm el-Sheikh in July, when they had agreed that dialogue was the only way to resolve outstanding issues, he said.
"He (Singh) had agreed that there is no other way but dialogue...We see this positively," Gilani told newsmen in the northwestern city of Peshawar, responding to a question on Singh's recent comments.
However, Gilani made it clear that any discussions between the two countries would be positive only if they included "core issues" like Kashmir.
"Till the core issues are resolved, the dream of achieving peace in the region will not be fulfilled," he said.
While extending the offer of talks to Pakistan, Singh had said the dialogue would be productive only if Pakistan took steps to control terrorism emanating from its territory.
Gilani visited Peshawar to take stock of the security situation in the wake of a devastating car bomb attack in a commercial hub that killed nearly 120 people earlier this week.
Peshawar has witnessed several major terrorist attacks in the past few weeks.
The premier chaired a high-level meeting on the security situation that was attended by North West Frontier Province chief minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti and federal and provincial ministers.
"We are in a state of war...The militants are working on a foreign agenda," he said.
Gilani said the world community should not doubt Pakistan's ability and determination to fight terrorism and extremism.
He called on the international community to enhance the capacity of Pakistan's law enforcement agencies by providing training and equipment.
"We have the will, ability and resolve to take on terrorists but we need to build up our capacity," he said.
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