Washington: Terming Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's peace overtures to Pakistan as "an imaginative political process," the US has said there has been considerable lowering of tension in the region following the initiative and that Washington was committed to encouraging normalisation of ties between the two countries.

South Asia has received less attention of late, "and I think that is good news." And what we have seen in recent weeks and months is a considerable lowering of tensions there. I think considerable credit ought to go to the Indian Prime Minister, Vajpayee, for initiating, I believe, an imaginative political process," State Department Policy Planning Director Richard Haass said on June12.

"We are soon going to have the visit of President Musharraf of Pakistan to Washington. And I think, again, amidst a lot of challenges out there and problems, this is an area where, over the last few weeks and months, we have clearly seen progress, and obviously we are committed to doing everything we can to further encouraging normalisation between India and Pakistan," he said.

Referring to Afghanistan, Haass said the US continues to work there to essentially build up that country and to "help it become, if you will, a normal country able to deal with all of its internal challenges."

PTI