Islamabad: Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri has said the country would have to budge from its 56-year-old "stated position" on Kashmir to evolve a workable solution to the issue.

India would also have to show flexibility to find a solution agreeable to the Kashmiris as well as both the countries, he said in Lahore yesterday (Apr 17, 2004).

Maintaining that both countries have made progress towards the target, Kasuri expressed the hope that the solution to the Kashmir issue would pave the way for lasting peace in the region, Pakistani daily 'The News' quoted him as saying.

On the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service talks, the Foreign Minister said that negotiations had not been cancelled but postponed for the time being.

The bus service issue would be considered when talks resume in the near future, he said adding Pakistan had entered into the process with an open heart and mind.

To a question, he denied that President Pervez Musharraf had received an invitation for visiting India after the general elections in that country.