Vajpayee: Pakistan talks to continue

India says Pakistan backs militant attacks in Kashmir

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has said that talks with Pakistan will continue - but has blamed Islamabad for the failure to reach agreement at the recent summit in Agra.

President Musharraf focused exclusively on Jammu and Kashmir. I focused on the terrorism ... in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee

Giving his first account to parliament of his talks with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, Mr Vajpayee said that "a degree of understanding" had been reached at the summit on which both sides would build.

"Our bilateral engagement with Pakistan will continue."

The summit - the first such high-level meeting in two years - generated high expectations, but ended without any joint declaration because of differences over Kashmir.

'Terrorism'

Mr Vajpayee said General Musharraf was "reluctant" to address India's concerns about attacks by separatist militant groups in Kashmir.

Mr Vajpayee: Indian concerns have to be addressed

India accuses Pakistan of actively supporting such groups, while Islamabad says it gives them only moral backing.

"I conveyed in clear terms that India has the resolve, strength and stamina to counter terrorism and violence until it is decisively crushed," Mr Vajpayee said.

He also said that Indian concerns in this area would have to find a place in any document that the two sides try to draw up.

"My cabinet colleagues and I were unanimously of the view that our basic principles cannot be sacrificed for the sake of a joint document," Mr Vajpayee said.

Criticism

India's main opposition party, Congress, which has criticised the government's handling of the summit, said it was "extremely disappointed" with Mr Vajpayee's statement.

It described his stand as highly defensive.

Both Mr Vajpayee and Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh have accepted invitations to visit Pakistan to continue talks.

Last week, General Musharraf also said that talks with India would continue, but insisted that Kashmir would have to be resolved as it was the main issue in relations between the two countries.

The territory, claimed by both sides, has been at the centre of two out of three wars between them.