Peace hopes of Indian minister

India and Pakistan: Long-running dispute over Kashmir

By Altaf Hussein in Srinagar

A confederation of India and Pakistan could one day become a reality, India's Home Minister, Lal Krishna Advani, has said.

Addressing a gathering at Leh in Indian-administered Kashmir on Thursday, Mr Advani said he was hopeful that the long-running tension between the two countries would ease.

Mr Advani is thought to have been expressing personal views

To all indications, Mr Advani's statement reflects his personal views, rather than the Indian Government's policy.

The implications of his statement are not immediately clear, but a known hard-liner among Hindu nationalists, Mr Advani made these remarks while expressing his optimism about improvement in relations between the two neighbours.

Friendship hopes

Significantly, he tried to put the Hindu nationalist party Jana Sangh slogan of Akhand Bharad, or united India, in a positive perspective, by saying it never meant Pakistan should be attacked and conquered.

He said the partition of India in 1947 had not done any good to the people of either India or Pakistan.

On Wednesday, the Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had also expressed strong hope that India and Pakistan would become friends, even if that took some time.

Pakistan, for its part, has also been offering to resume talks with India.

But the proposed dialogue between the two countries has proved elusive so far.

The US has been urging both India and Pakistan to find a way of talking to each other to resolve their dispute.