Moscow: Taking note of a drop in infiltration along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Anatoly Safonov has stressed the need for further steps by Pakistan to check cross-border terrorism and liquidate terrorist infrastructure.

"Judging by reports, infiltration of terrorists into J and K has dropped. Nevertheless, we believe that Pakistan must continue to take further steps to check infiltration of terrorists across the Line of Control and liquidate the entire terror infrastructure on the territory controlled by it," Safonov said on the eve of his visit to New Delhi.

Safonov is scheduled to co-chair the second meeting of Indo-Russian working group on countering international terrorism on Thursday (Apr 7, 2004) in New Delhi to discuss the threat of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction in South Asia, Afghanistan and Central Asia.

The Deputy Foreign Minister noted that the recent SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) summit in Islamabad and ongoing India-Pakistan bonhomie also create favourable pre-conditions for lowering the threat of terrorism in the subcontinent.

He described the ongoing developments in South Asia as "very significant positive shift," including commercial, sports and cultural ties and beginning of a political dialogue between India and Pakistan.

"For the (full) normalisation of bilateral relations, no doubt a political will is required, which, as we know, the Indian side has," he said.

Safonov is also the co-chairman of Russia-Pakistan Joint Working on countering terrorism and in February had visited Islamabad for its meeting.

His visit to New Delhi comes shortly after last week's Washington session of US-Russian working group on countering new threats and global challenges, where he co-chairs a sub-group on weapons of mass destruction.

India and Russia have a very close multi-track anti-terror co-operation, which involves exchange of information and interaction between the concerned departments and Ministries of the two countries, Safonov noted.

"Besides this inter-departmental mechanism, our bilateral co-operation also takes place within the framework of inter-Ministerial (Foreign Secretary-level) working group on countering global challenges, which is scheduled to hold its second meeting soon, as well as between the Security Councils of the two countries," he said.

The adoption of India-sponsored draft of the global convention on countering international terrorism and Russia-sponsored draft of the international convention on combating nuclear terrorism by the United Nations was identified by Safonov as "one of the key tasks" of the Indian and Russian diplomacies.

"Adoption of these documents would be a significant contribution in strengthening international legal base of co-operation in combating this scourge," Safonov said.