Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali on May 13 said reduced tensions with India could help bring prosperity to the region and improve his country's "political culture".

"You do not bring change by fighting wars... the political culture has to be changed into an economic culture," Jamali told a gathering of Pakistan's international donors in Islamabad to review its economic performance.

Jamali said India too wanted to improve economic ties with Pakistan.

"You will be surprised that when I talked to the Indian Prime Minister Mr Vajpayee, his first emphasis was economics," he said.

Addressing an audience of about 150 delegates including officials from donors such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, Jamali pledged to push on with economic reforms.

He said measures introduced since President Gen Pervez Pervez Musharraf came to power in 1999, such as privatising state-owned industries and cutting subsidies, have put Pakistan "on the road to prosperity".

"I didn't change the economic team of the past government because I didn't want a break in the previous policies," said Jamali, who became Prime Minister after the October elections that marked a partial return to civilian rule.