Islamabad: Shortly after India and Pakistan agreed to restore airlinks and overflights from January 1, Islamabad today (Dec 1, 2003) said it offered unilateral ceasefire and gave up its demand for Indian guarantees for restoration of aviation links in order to break the logjam and pave the way for resumption of stalled dialogue.

It also denied that President Pervez Musharraf announced lifting of ban on overflights under pressure from US.

Though India has not offered any concessions so far, Pakistan came out with the two significant "gestures" to break the ice between the two countries, Foreign Office Spokesman Masood Khan told a media briefing.

"India has not made any concessions. It is a unilateral gesture made to restart the stalled progress. We are not getting anywhere due to the deadlock."

"President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali demonstrated statesmanship, which was applauded by all nations. This is a significant watershed," he said in the face of pointed questions from the local media corps over Pakistan's move to warm up to India.

After these gestures from Pakistan, he said India should not have any "excuse" to continue to stall the dialogue process to resolve Kashmir and other issues, adding, "We should now move ahead and the President has facilitated that."

PTI