Washington: Warning Pakistan against holding the entire bilateral Indo-Pakistan agenda hostage to a single issue of Kashmir, Indian Ambassador to the US Lalit Mansingh has said this approach would defeat the very purpose of the current peace initiative.

"...It is equally important that Pakistan must not hold the entire bilateral agenda hostage to a single issue, namely Kashmir. That would defeat the very purpose of the current peace initiative," Mansingh, who will soon be retiring from his position in Washington, said.

He also lauded the enormous strides made in Indo-US relations but cautioned Washington against double standards on international war against terrorism.

"This war cannot be won completely and durably if short-term political calculations come into play and there is ambiguity about allies as well as adversaries.

"In the global war against terrorism, there cannot be two touchstones for judging acts of premeditated violence against innocent human beings. Nor can there be the remotest justification in terms of looking for the so-called root causes," he said in his address at the Elliot School of International Affairs, George Washington University yesterday (Apr 1, 2004).