Islamabad: Exacerbating its war of words, Pakistan on September 29 said the "so-called" hand of friendship extended by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has not yet reached Pakistan and termed New Delhi "bloody-minded" for blocking Islamabad's re-entry to the Commonwealth.

"The peace process has not started. Both sides only made peace overtures. Vajpayee has extended his so-called hand of friendship but it has not reached Islamabad. It is there in Delhi. It has to be followed up with some concrete actions," Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan said at the weekly briefing.

"Pakistan has not accepted the hand of friendship but only reciprocated it," Khan said, adding Islamabad was not desperate for talks with New Delhi.

"We offered dialogue with India but they added ifs and buts. The dialogue has to be on sovereign equality. We shall not countenance any condescension in this regard," he said.

Khan also lashed out at India for blocking its entry into the Commonwealth. He accused New Delhi of opposing the country's re-entry into the group at the recent Commonwealth Ministerial in New York on the principle of consensus by raising objections.

"They are not so powerful. They are just bloody-minded," Khan retorted when asked whether India had become so powerful as to block its re-entry as charged by Islamabad.

PTI