Islamabad: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf today (May 24, 2004) said he received an "extremely positive message" from the new Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on improving Indo-Pak relations when he spoke to him last night.

"I had a 20 minute-long telephone talk with Manmohan Singh. I am very glad; it was an extremely positive message that he gave me. He showed complete desire to resolve all disputes with Pakistan and to have an excellent relationship with Pakistan. We reciprocate that feeling and I did," he said.

"I will also speak to Sonia Gandhi soon. This is the way forward. We want to resolve our disputes Insha Allah (god willing) and the core issue is Kashmir of course and we must resolve it," he said while interacting with students participating in a Government-sponsored anti-extremism convention in Islamabad.

Musharraf made the comments while narrating the dangers Pakistan faced due to wider perception of the outside world that the country promoted terrorism and that the perception included that Kashmir "freedom struggle" was terrorism.

"The perception is wrong. Freedom struggle is going on there (Kashmir). That freedom struggle has its own indigenous character. But peace is required between India and Pakistan and we are going for that. I do not want to go into details," he said before referring to his conversations with Singh.

Musharraf also said that peace was required between India and Pakistan to resolve Kashmir and other issues between the two countries.