Tuesday, January 10 2006 10:27 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Islamabad: Pakistan yesterday (Jan 09, 2006) ruled out unilateral withdrawal of troops from the Kashmir region under its occupation and said the future of Indo-Pak dialogue process was not 'bleak' in the wake of India's rejection of its suggestion to pull out troops from three cities in the valley.

As a result of India's rejection of President Pervez Musharraf's suggestion to India to pull out the army from Srinagar, Kupwara and Baramulla, Pakistan too will not unilaterally withdraw troops from PoK, Foreign Office Spokesperson Tasnim Aslam told reporters here.

"Certainly let me put it on record that there will be no unilateral demilitarisation," she said clarifying remarks made by Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurishd M Kasuri yesterday that Pakistan was ready to pull out troops from PoK.

Kasuri while elaborating on Musharraf comment's made in an interview told sources that while Pakistan was willing to pull out troops from PoK, it wants the entire region to be demilitarised by both India and Pakistan.

Kasuri said Musharraf's comments should be seen as an advice. He said India 'as usual' did not react favourably to the advice, which was not conducive to better relations between both the countries.

Reacting to India's rejection of the troop pull out plan, Aslam said it cannot be termed as a failure of Pakistan's foreign policy.

"There is no foreign policy failure here. We would have liked to see the peace process move more quickly. It is not moving at the pace we would have desired, but at the same time while we have expressed our disappointment it is not all bleak," she said.

The Foreign Office Spokesperson said Pakistan forwarded the ideas on the troop pull out in the spirit of the peace process for the resolution of the Kashmir issue.

"These are motivated by the desire to seek a settlement in the interest of Pakistan, India and the people of Kashmir," she said

Aslam said Indian and Pakistani Foreign Secretaries would be meeting in New Delhi to discuss Kashmir and Peace Security issues on Jan 17 and 18 at the beginning of the third round of Composite Dialogue process and would focus on new ideas to resolve Kashmir issue.

"We are going to resume the third round of Composite Dialogue and also various ideas are being thrown out and being discussed. We do hope that there will be flexibility to take the process further," Aslam said.

She said only after the third round of talks Pakistan would know where the process headed. "We will also have a better idea about what this process can achieve after we have had this meeting", she said.

Asked about India's charge of infiltration, she said Indian leaders and officials made 'contradictory' statements. Half of Indian establishment says it (infiltration) has ceased and the other half says it is going on, she said.

She said thousands of international aid workers are engaged in relief operations in quake hit areas of PoK close to the LoC and they have 'not' discovered any infiltration.

Asked about reports on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Pakistan, she said these were mere speculations.

On opening of Pakistan Consulate in Mumbai, Aslam said Pakistan has approached India to solve the problems arising out of a complaint by the owners association of an apartment block in Mumbai where Pakistan has hired temporary space to locate its mission. The flat owners association has 'objected' to the mission's locating fearing influx of visa seekers into the block.

"We have approached the Indian government to resolve the problem," she said while rejecting the impression that Pakistan is dragging its feet over the issue.

On the contrary Pakistan was very keen to make its consulate general operational, she sad.

To a question, she said Pakistan is interested in acquiring civilian nuclear technology and power plants, which would be under IAEA safeguards.

To another question, she said the F-16s deal with the United States is intact but their acquisition has been delayed.