Tuesday, March 15 2005 18:38 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf today (Mar 15, 2005) said he looked forward to holding "a little more concrete" talks with Indian leaders when he visits India to watch one of the matches of the ongoing cricket series.

"I have been invited to India and I have a blank cheque to watch any of the matches. More important than the match, I would like to meet Indian leaders and I know there is desire on the other side, and I look forward to making this meeting a little more concrete, to move the process forward," he said in an interview to BBC's Asia Today programme.

On Kashmir, Musharraf said, "we are giving bilateralism a chance" as "there is sincerity on the other side."

"The sincerity was visible in the joint statement we gave. After that a lot of time has passed, and we haven't moved forward," he said, adding that the agreement on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service showed flexibility on both sides.

Musharraf said the "resolution (of the Kashmir issue) is important to reinforce, to strengthen the moderates. If we fail, we will have weekend the moderates and strengthen the extremists because the extremists don't think that political solution is possible, while the moderates like I do say yes we will resolve it politically. The whole world should understand this," according to a BBC release.

Asked why he was not launching a crackdown on extremists in the country, Musharraf said he could not do so for the fear of public backlash.

"If we take action, there will be people on the streets. Do you want us to fire at them... Then you will say that we are violating democracy," he said.

"There is a conflict in the mind of the West. On the one hand, they want democracy and on the other they demand autocratic actions," he said.

Observing that a perception already existed in Pakistan that things "are dictated by the West", the President said his Government had to take "long term view" on the issue.