Monday, September 12 2005 17:51 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Paris: As he prepares to meet Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf for the second time in five months, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today (Sept 12, 2005) said India favoured multiplication of exchanges between people of the two countries.

India wants 'pacific, friendly and good neighbourly relations' with Pakistan, Singh told leading French daily Le Figaro in an interview published today.

"We have favoured a policy oriented on the willingness of the people, and multiplication of exchanges between Indian and Pakistani people," he said.

The Prime Minister will meet Musharraf in New York on Wednesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly annual summit. Singh will also host a dinner for the Pakistani leader.

Earlier, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reaffirmed that borders cannot be redrawn; indicating that internal ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir could be considered provided violence and infiltration of terrorists stop.

India and Pakistan must work together to make borders irrelevant through people-to-people contact and border trade, Singh said yesterday (Sept 11, 2005).