Wednesday, August 31 2005 21:51 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Islamabad: BJP President L K Advani has said that his remarks on Mohammad Ali Jinnah during his visit to Pakistan were in the "interest" of the people of the two countries.

"Whatever viewpoint I adopted was and is in the interest of people of India and Pakistan and I'm still telling my party men the same," he said in an interview to Pakistani daily 'Jang' when asked about the controversy over his statement.

The Urdu-language daily quoted him as saying that he took the line before his party that whatever he asserted in Pakistan was completely in accordance with the policies of his (Non Democratic Alliance) government during its tenure.

Asked why he was backing Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi while some people in his party wanted him to be sacked, Advani said that supporting him was a well-considered decision because he has done a lot of development in the state and even the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation has praised him for his developmental work.

To a question on the impact of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Afghanistan on the region, the Leader of the Opposition noted that the Indo-Afghan relations had been good. Now the war-ravaged country needs a lot of reconstruction and India should play its role in this context, he said.

About India's demand that Pakistan should allow transit trade, he said he would not say anything in this regard and let the Congress government deal with it.

Advani also expressed hope that the just-concluded Home Secretaries' level talks "would further reduce differences and increase understanding."

"We are happy that present dialogue process was initiated by our government and we still desire the process keep proceeding," he said.

Advani termed as wrong the impression that the process of the Indo-Pak dialogue had slowed down following Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to the US and said he did not think Washington would want India to slow down the speed of talks with Pakistan.

"The fact is that the Congress Government is facing difficulties in formulating and implementing economic and foreign policies because of its allies.

"The communists having traditionally anti-US stance have been major ally of the coalition government and so their pressure does create such a situation," he said. Advani also said that the extradition of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim has become an "emotionally sensitive" issue in India and added that any positive action by Pakistan in this regard would have a "good impact" on the Indian public.