Monday, May 16 2005 09:52 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Islamabad: Asserting that India and Pakistan "must" build a stable architecture for peace, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said that Kashmir is the core issue and stakeholders - both countries and the people of Kashmir - should sit together to resolve it.

At a dinner hosted in Islamabad last night (May 15, 2005) for Indian Parliamentarians and senior editors visiting the country as part of a South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA) delegation, he said India and Pakistan would have to show flexibility, magnanimity, reasonableness to solve the Kashmir problem in a manner that would be acceptable to all concerned parties, including the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

Stakeholders, that is India, Pakistan, and the people of Kashmir should sit together to resolve it, he said.

Asked if he would like India to take any specific step, Aziz said both sides should seek a serious dialogue on Kashmir.

"We have reached a juncture where we have to move from conflict management to conflict resolution," he said.

Emphasising that a just and equitable solution lies at the heart of the peace process, he said, "We must build a stable architecture for peace."

Maintaining that Pakistan remained committed to the dialogue process, he said the "bitter truth" was that South Asia would not achieve its full potential till the root causes of the differences were not addressed.

Aziz said those who believe that India and Pakistan would solve all problems by open trade and other Confidence Building Measures (CBM) were naive.