London: India is willing to look at "all possible ways" of resolving Kashmir and other outstanding issues so long as Pakistan ensures territory under its control will not be allowed to promote cross-border terrorism, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said while ruling out any third party mediation on the issue.

Singh also described as a "very important lesson" the European Union integration model for strengthening economic relations between India and Pakistan.

In an interview to the 'Financial Times' published today (Nov 8, 2004), he made it clear that third party mediation on Jammu and Kashmir was not acceptable to India.

"It is our honest belief that in the relationship between India and Pakistan if a durable solution is to be found, it cannot be imposed from outside.

"It has to be a solution in which both countries genuinely believe that bilateral negotiations are the best means to resolve the outstanding problems, he said.

The interview was given at the Prime Minister's official residence in Delhi prior to his three-day visit to The Hague for the India-EU Summit.

Singh was asked about India dismissing Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's proposal on Kashmir despite assuring him in New York in September when they met that New Delhi was open to any option.

"Our position is that so long as Pakistan remains committed to the January 6 statement-which was jointly issued by Gen Musharraf and by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee--that territory under the control of Pakistan will not be used to promote cross-border terrorism, we are willing to look at all possible ways of resolving all outstanding issues and that includes Jammu and Kashmir," Singh said.

The Prime Minister said he believed that when dealing with seemingly intractable problems one had to be confident of one's own sincerity in trying to find a solution.

He said his hour-long meeting with Musharraf on September 24 provided them an opportunity to get to know each other.

"Now President Musharraf has been saying-and he has been realistic enough to say, that solutions that are not acceptable to India should be out and solutions that are not acceptable to Pakistan should be out--and I said to him that I would like to hear suggestions from him. So we welcome various suggestions," Singh said.

Observing that the two countries were dealing with "complicated issues", he said "there is such a thing as history behind us and there are also realities on the ground.

"Taking all this into account, we are willing, I think to look all options, to think about a new chapter and a new beginning between our two countries," he said.