Monday, February 21 2005 22:15 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Beijing: Pakistan today (Feb 21, 2005) hoped that the recent "breakthrough" agreement on starting the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus service would "induce" India to involve the Kashmiri people in the on-going peace process.

"We are confident that the goodwill generated by the recent agreement would lead to greater interaction between the Kashmiris living on both sides of Line of Control (LoC)," Kasuri, who had a brief stopover here en-route to Japan, was quoted a saying by the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP).

"This might induce the Government of India to involve the Kashmiris in on-going dialogue sooner, rather than later, because in their ultimate analysis it is about their (Kashmiris) future, they are talking about," he said.

Describing the agreement on the bus service as a "breakthrough" for providing an opportunity to Kashmiri people to involve themselves in the peace process, he said Pakistan was moving ahead to resolve its basic dispute of Kashmir with India through a composite dialogue.

"Kashmir is most important issue for Pakistan and we believe the role of Kashmiri people is very important for its final settlement. History has proved that Kashmir has been the core issue, and it caused immense frictions between the two countries leading to wars," he said.

The Pakistani Foreign Minister also lauded China's positive role in South Asia, and said it helped Pakistan to peacefully resolve its disputes with India.