Wednesday, September 14 2005 20:24 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New York: Ahead of their meeting here, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pervez Musharraf have made comments seeking to put the onus of the progress in the Indo-Pak peace process on each other with the Indian leader making it plain that the flow of terror into Jammu and Kashmir must stop for that.

On his part, Musharraf, who will be the Prime Minister's guest at a dinner tonight (Sept 14, 2005) (Editors: 5.30 AM IST on Thursday), introduced a new element into the dialogue process by seeking US President George W Bush's help to persuade India to pull out troops from areas such as Baramulla and Kupwara in the Kashmir valley to achieve forward movement in the discussions.

"The proposal is a message for India and the US as well," Pakistan said.

Both Singh and Musharraf had separate meetings with the US President, who is here for the UN Summit, and at both the meetings the Indo-Pak peace process figured prominently. They gave their assessment to Bush and in the process sent out messages to each other on what needs to be done.

The Prime Minister did some plain speaking of his own telling Bush that Pakistan still controlled the flow of terror into Jammu and Kashmir and this must stop "for any real progress to be made in the peace process".

During a 30-minute one-on-one meeting with Bush, the Pakistani General pushed hard for a pullout of Indian troops from specific areas in the Kashmir valley saying that it would be a 'definitive step' towards meaningful progress on the Kashmir problem. Unless there is Indian reciprocity on the key issue of Kashmir all other confidence building measures would lose their impact, Musharraf told Bush.

Singh and Musharraf, who enjoy a good personal rapport, will review the progress of their dialogue on Kashmir and other issues during the dinner meeting. Their remarks to Bush and the onus they have sought to put on each other for progress in the dialogue process is unlikely to have any negative impact on their parleys.

In fact, there is speculation that they may make progress on issues like Siachen and Sir Creek.

The Indian side is likely to tell Musharraf, who in a personal telephone call to Singh on July 19 had promised to rein in within a month militant groups in Pakistan operating in Kashmir, that while there had been a fall in the number of infiltrators the level of violence in Jammu and Kashmir had not shown any perceptible decline.