Dubai: Unlike Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who had declared that he would "retire" if he failed in his fresh peace bid, his Pakistani counterpart Zafarullah Khan Jamali has said he would not resign, as he believed in "trying again."

Jamali, in an interview to 'Khaleej Times' published on June 9, said he would head the Pakistani side at the summit talks with Vajpayee but would not resign if the parleys failed to resolve the Kashmir dispute, because he believed in trying again.

Asked if he will follow Vajpayee who had reportedly said he would resign if he fail to solve the Kashmir dispute, Jamali said "if Vajpayee had said so, that is his wish and will, it is entirely up to him. But in politics the political approach has to be taken into consideration".

He said, "The mechanics (for the summit) have to be worked out. We are inching towards a rapprochement step by step. A few step have been taken by us and a few by India," he said.

The key issue of Kashmir "is there and it remains there as a principal issue. If other countries can come together and talk among themselves, why can't India and Pakistan do so?" he asked.

Vajpayee in an interview to German magazine 'Der Spigel' earlier had said he would retire if his peace initiative with Pakistan failed. He did not elaborate.

Jamali said the US was only trying to "facilitate" a dialogue between India and Pakistan and was not exerting any pressure on Islamabad to accelerate normalisation of Indo-Pak ties.

PTI