Washington: US President George W Bush has reiterated, during his meeting with Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, his assurance that he would speak to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf about creating a climate in which Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's initative could succeed.

Advani, who was speaking at a press conference on June 11 at the end of his Washington visit, said: "President Bush expressed warm admiration for the Prime Minister's initiative of April 18 and said that he deserves great credit for it."

"Bush also said he (Vajpayee) had gambled for peace and provided political space for resolving differences, without forgoing the concern for security," Advani said.

"He reiterated what he had already conveyed to the Prime Minister in St. Petersburg climate in which this initiative would succeed."

Asked whether the US agrees with India that no progress in Indo-Pak talks is possible unless cross-border terrorism into Jammu and Kashmir ends, Advani said "the American Government is conspicuous of all these facts but every government has its foreign policy interests to safeguard, and those foreign policy interests may be based upon certain assessments with which India may not agree."

"That is a different matter. He would give scope to every country, even in its position against terrorism, to look after its own foreign policy interests. India also would like to do the same," the Deputy Prime Minister said.

"Therefore," he said, "I have always felt that cross-border terrorism, so far as India is concerned, is a problem which is essentially India's own, and India is determined to overcome this problem on its own, though we do feel that the international climate created against terrorism after 9/11 has been of great help to us and it will continue to be of help to us."

PTI