Friday, April 15 2005 17:03 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Observing that the atmosphere today was not yet conducive for compromises by either India or Pakistan, former National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra has said it was "too early" to expect a resolution of the Kashmir dispute.

"In my view, General (Pervez) Musharraf should not insist on quick solutions to the Kashmir problem because it is not going to happen. I am pretty sure that if tomorrow he sits down and talks about a solution with (Prime Minister) Manmohan Singh, there is going to be no solution....," he told BBC in an interview on 'Hard Talk' India programme.

"....it is not premature to explore options but it is premature to think that you can come to a speedy solution, as President Musharraf has indicated more than once. In my view, you need an atmosphere conducive for compromise, an atmosphere in which what today seems impossible will become probable tomorrow," Mishra said.

He said though the peace process would "encounter bumps on the road", it would continue.

Observing that the Agra Summit in 2001 had "failed very badly", Mishra said he was "not involved" in the decision to invite General Musharraf. "The decision was taken at the political level. I was not consulted .... but I would have had reservations about it," he said, according a press release on the interview.

Revealing for the first time details of the back-channel diplomatic contact that he had maintained with his Pakistani counterpart, Tariq Aziz, he said, "those discussions were extremely critical and, in fact, without them, the 6th January statement of last year would not have come about".

He was referring to the pledges of cooperation made by India and Pakistan at the end of the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) Summit in Islamabad.

"We had three meetings outside India and Pakistan and in those three meetings, we were about to hammer out the differences on how to proceed to initiate or reinitiate the composite dialogue.

"It (the back channel) was for seven months. But although in these seven months we talked quite a lot, the critical round was when I went to Islamabad two days in advance of the SAARC Summit, and had four to five rounds with Tariq Aziz to hammer out the statement of 6th January 2004," he said.

Mishra said this announcement was different because "earlier statements, earlier assurances used to come through third parties, and we were never sure as to what was said by Musharraf to the gentlemen concerned, or what was said by the gentlemen concerned to Musharraf. But here, we were absolutely sure because we knew what we were talking about, and he knew what he was talking about".