Historic opportunity for India-Pakistan talks: Musharraf

HAVANA: Pakistan and India have a "historic opportunity" to restart negotiations on the Kashmir dispute, Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf said on Friday ahead of planned talks in Havana with the Indian premier.   

"A historic opportunity exists that must be seized by the leadership of the two countries" Musharraf said at the Non-Aligned Movement summit.   

He and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh planned to meet on the sidelines of the gathering in a bid to restart negotiations on the decades-old conflict over Kashmir.  

Sources close to the talks said the meeting would be held early Saturday Havana time.   

Musharraf said the two countries should put their full energy into making progress on the dispute, and called for the 118-nation NAM to establish "a mechanism for conflict resolution."   

The Pakistani leader also told the NAM leaders that "our strategy must clearly oppose the sinister tendencies to equate terrorism with Islam."   

On Tuesday, Musharraf said in Brussels that peace was within reach in the divided region of Kashmir and challenged India to seize the opportunity to end the bloody conflict.   

"I sincerely believe that today opportunity exists and it must be seized to resolve the dispute through peaceful dialogue," he said at a conference on the disputed region at the European Parliament.   

He said that improved relations between India and Pakistan, as well as a "conducive international environment," could help improve dialogue over Kashmir if regional leaders are sincere, flexible and bold.   

"Leaders who cannot grasp fleeting opportunity are no leaders," he said.   

Both countries claim the scenic Himalayan region, which has been the source of two of their three wars since 1947. At least 44,000 people have been killed since the outbreak of an Islamic insurgency in Indian Kashmir in 1989.   

Musharraf has praised Singh as "a man of sincerity" with "a flexible approach" and said he hoped he would show the courage needed to resolve the decades-long dispute between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.   

Likening the talks to a high-stakes poker game, the Pakistani president insisted in Brussels that Pakistan is "only prepared to be flexible on how to move forward" from its stance if India also plays a card.   

Ahead of their talks, the Indian premier has said he would remind Musharraf of his promise to rein in Islamic militant groups like Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba which are battling Indian rule over part of Kashmir.   

But the president suggested he had little sway with the militants, whom he has said were "trying to kill me."   

Singh, in his address to the NAM leaders in Havana, did not address the Kashmir issue directly. He did however urged leaders of the group to take a conciliatory tone as they work to counter terrorism, which he said should be a top priority. "If NAM is to be relevant in today's circumstances, it cannot afford to equivocate on the subject of terrorism," Singh told more than 55 leaders of state and government from the NAM's 118 developing-country member states.   

"A message must emanate from us that we are united in our desire to fight and eliminate the scourge of terrorism. We cannot allow the forces of intolerance and extremism to distract the world's attention from the vital concerns of our people -- the problems of poverty, ignorance and disease," Singh stressed.   

At a summit that has been rife with sharp words on US policy Singh appealed for a new "inclusive globalization."   

He and also argued that "as a group we have rejected extremes. We must spread the word of Gandhiji, the apostle of peace. Our voice must then be one of moderation, harmony and reason," Singh said.

"If such is the voice of more than half of the people of the world, it will prevail."