Wednesday, March 9 2005 14:47 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: India today (Mar 9, 2005) said that the procedure followed for starting the bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad was without prejudice to its position on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.

"The display of mutual flexibility has enabled the two sides to take a significant step in responding to humanitarian considerations, particularly the opportunity for divided families to meet each other with relative ease and convenience," Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed said in a suo motu statement in Lok Sabha.

He said, "The procedure adopted is without prejudice to our stated position on the issue of JK."

The Minister clarified that all Indian and Pakistani nationals would be permitted to use this route across the Line of Control (LoC). The bus service is expected to start from April 7, 2005.

Each side will designate its authority for receiving application forms for travel and for issue of travel permits at the checkpoint. On the Indian side, the designated authority is the Regional Passport Officer, Srinagar.

He said that India and Pakistan had also reached an agreement on starting a bus service between Lahore and Amritsar, including to religious places such as Nankana Sahib.

Pakistan has also agreed to work towards the early restoration of the Khokrapar-Munnabao rail link.

India has also expressed to the US its strong concern over arms sales to Pakistan and said it would impact on the goodwill for the US in the country, E Ahamed said.

"India's strong concern regarding repercussions of arms sales to Pakistan by the US, including on the ongoing India-Pakistan dialogue, has been conveyed at high levels to the US Government," he told Lok Sabha.

It was also conveyed that such transfers of arms to Pakistan at a time when Indo-US relations saw transformation towards a strategic partnership, would impact on the goodwill for the US in India, he said.

Washington, Ahamed said, had stated that while it had an arms supply relationship with Pakistan, it was supportive of the India-Pakistan dialogue also.

He said during the latest visit to Pakistan of External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh, the Indo-Pak dialogue process was taken "significantly forward" and concrete steps taken to improve bilateral relations.

It was also decided to conclude agreements in the coming months on pre-notification of missile tests and between Coast Guards and Pakistan's Maritime Security Agency as also between narcotics control authorities of the two nations, he said.