Saturday, April 2 2005 20:17 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Islamabad: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said he would discuss the Kashmir issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when he visits New Delhi on April 16 to watch the last one-day Indo-Pak cricket match the next day.

Kashmir issue will figure in the talks between him and the Indian leadership, the State-run PTV quoted Musharraf as telling the members of the Cabinet of Southwest Baluchistan province in Quetta.

Earlier addressing the centenary celebrations of the Command and Staff College in Quetta, he said Pakistan has put in place the strategy to gain defensive deterrence with India in the nuclear field and efforts were on to achieve the same in the conventional field.

A strategy of defensive deterrence was in place and "we have already achieved all goals in the unconventional field to implement this policy," Musharraf said, without directly referring to Pakistan's nuclear and missile programme.

In the conventional field, efforts were in hand to address all imbalances, the official APP news agency quoted him as saying.

Outlining the accomplishments of the country since he took over power through a military coup in 1999, Musharraf said Pakistan today was far better placed both politically and diplomatically.

The economy was rising and now economic gains were to be transferred to the people, he said.

Referring to demands by Opposition parties that Army should go back to barracks and let the country be ruled by elected Governments, Musharraf said the Army is already in barracks and only he was out at the helm of the nation.

Stressing that all the day-today administrative decisions are being taken by the elected Government, he said he intervenes only to help implement certain crucial decisions.

He said extremism posed main threat to the society, adding that misuse of religious institutions needed to be checked to combat it.

"We must correct the wrong perception prevailing about Pakistan for which mainly some of our own people are responsible. They talk against the country for their vested interests," he said.