Delhi Kashmir move hailed

Hurriyat leaders are to travel to Pakistan this month

Pakistan has welcomed India's decision to allow Kashmiri separatists to visit Islamabad as an encouraging sign.

Representatives from the leading separatist alliance, the All Party Hurriyat [Freedom] Conference, are to due to go to Pakistan later this month.

Kashmir is the main cause of tension between Pakistan and India

Maj Gen Rashid Qureshi

It follows a relative thaw on the ground after the Indian Government announced it was extending a unilateral ceasefire in Indian-administered Kashmir.

A spokesman in Islamabad, Major General Rashid Qureshi, said Pakistan had pulled back a substantial number of its troops from the Line of Control in Kashmir, as it had pledged to do.

He said Pakistan was looking forward to holding talks with the Hurriyat representatives.

"Kashmir is the main cause of tension between Pakistan and India. It needs to be resolved according to the wishes of the Kashmiri people and UN resolutions," General Qureshi said.

But the BBC's Islamabad correspondent, Susannah Price, says one main sticking point remains the opposition of Pakistani-based militant groups who say they will continue fighting.

One group, the Lashkar-e-Toyeba, said recently that it was behind an attack on an Indian army camp at Delhi's historic Red Fort, in which three people died.

BJP cautious

The Indian Government's peace moves in Kashmir have been backed by the leadership of the BJP - the main partner in the ruling coalition.

A ceasefire is currently in place

But, at a meeting of its national executive in Delhi, the party said the government should stand firm against terrorism.

It said the government could not afford to let down its guard against Pakistan-based militant groups which, it alleged, enjoyed Islamabad's patronage.

"There is little evidence to suggest that there is any effort on the part of the Pakistan military regime to contain terrorist outfits," the party said in a statement.

Earlier this week, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said his government was ready to talk to any Kashmiri group but added that the time was not ripe for talks with Pakistan.

An earlier ceasefire, called last year by a leading militant group - Hizbul Mujahideen - collapsed after India rejected a demand to include Pakistan in three-way peace talks.

Delhi accuses Islamabad of fomenting the Kashmiri insurgency but Pakistan says it only provides moral and diplomatic support.