Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on August 26 accused the separatist leadership of shying away from dialogue with the Centre.

"The Centre has made its position abundantly clear and offered to meet everyone for meaningful dialogue, but separatists are shying away from it," he told Doordarshan in an interview on the eve of the inter-state council meeting.

This is the first time that the Chief Minister has come out in the open accusing the separatist leaders of shying away from the dialogue process.

Sayeed's reaction came a day after major separatist groups, including Hurriyat Conference, gave a call for a strike on August 27, when Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee would be inaugurating the council meet.

He termed holding of the eighth inter-state council meeting as yet another historic event and said such national-level conferences would help in normalising the situation and boost economic development of Jammu and Kashmir.

He said interaction by the Prime Minister during his visit to the state, second in four months, with local authorities would help in projecting the state's development demands and seeking early launching of pending projects.

Besides, discussing important matters relating to inter-state and centre-state relations are of great importance in a federal system, he said.

Jammu and Kashmir is hosting another important conference on Information Technology (IT) in the second week of September, Sayeed said.

PTI