Wednesday, April 20 2005 13:14 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Declaring that India was committed to peace and friendship with Pakistan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today (Apr 20, 2005) said that while redrawing of boundaries was not possible, greater traffic of people and trade across the Line of Control (LoC) would create an atmosphere of mutual trust between the two countries.

"While the redrawing of boundaries was not possible, all measures that could bring peoples of both sides together, including increased transportation linkages to facilitate greater traffic of people and trade across the border and the Line of Control, would help the process," Singh said making a suo motu statement on visits of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to India.

Noting that Musharraf and he agreed to continue the discussions in a "sincere, purposeful and forward-looking" manner, he said, "We have agreed to work together to carry forward the process and to bring the benefit of peace to people of our two countries and, in particular, the people of Jammu and Kashmir."

Observing that they reaffirmed their commitments in the Joint Statements issued on Jan 6, 2004 and Sept 24, 2004, the Prime Minister said the "reaffirmation addressed our concerns relating to terrorism from across the border".

"The Joint Statement (issued after Musharraf's visit earlier this week) also contained a pledge that terrorism would not be allowed to impede the peace process. It also underlines the importance of the peace process and the degree of improvement of relations between the two countries," he said.

Expressing satisfaction with the progress achieved in talks with Musharraf during his visit to India from April 16 to 18, Singh said the two countries should remain conscious of the difficulties ahead.

Emphasising that the threat to peace process from extremist forces and terrorist organisations has not been eliminated, he said, "The difficult issues that divide us have bedevilled relations between India and Pakistan for far too long to hope for an immediate resolution."

"Therefore, I mentioned to President Musharraf that the whole process of serious and sustained dialogue hinges on building an atmosphere of trust and confidence, free from violence and terror. We look forward to Pakistan implementing their assurances in letter and spirit".

Recalling that Musharraf stressed the importance of addressing the JK issue, Singh said the Pakistani leader, however, also agreed that the confidence building process between the two countries had made significant progress.

"We both felt that this process would continue to contribute to promoting a general sense of trust and understanding in our two countries, which in turn would be conducive to creating the environment for a just, fair and mutually acceptable solution to all outstanding issues," the Prime Minister said.

He said consequently, he and the Pakistani leader agreed to pursue further measures to enhance interaction and cooperation across the LoC including agreed meeting points for divided families, trade, pilgrimages and cultural interaction.

Maintaining that the JK issue was also discussed in a "positive environment", he said the dastardly suicide attack on Srinagar tourist reception centre and the terrorist threats were condemned by the two Governments.

"The courage and determination of our peoples and the condemnation by our Governments as contained in the Joint Statement of attempts to disrupt this important initiative, give us confidence, for its continued and successful operation with even greater frequency in the future," he said.

The Prime Minister said he was convinced the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service has tapped a latent reservoir of public support for greater people to people contact, especially among people living on either side of the LoC.

The Prime Minister made an identical statement in the Rajya Sabha after which BJP leader and former External Affairs Ministerr Yashwant Sinha demanded that there be a full-fledged discussion as issues with regard to India's ties with Pakistan and China were very important.

Responding to this, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Suresh Pachauri said the matter may be taken up at the next meeting of the Business Advisory Council of the House.

Addressing the Lok Sabha, the Prime Minister said the past year has been "quite a remarkable one" regarding relations with Pakistan.

The two countries successfully concluded one round of the composite dialogue and have already commenced the next round, he said.

Diplomatic and other links, he said, have been normalised and restored to the level of pre-December 13, 2001, when terrorists had attacked Parliament.