Musharraf begins visit to India

Pakistan's president arrived in India today for a weekend of prayers, peace talks and cricket, his first visit since a disastrous…

Pakistan's president arrived in India today for a weekend of prayers, peace talks and cricket, his first visit since a disastrous summit in 2001 and a sign of warming ties between the nuclear rivals.

"I come here with a message of peace," President Pervez Musharraf said after praying at South Asia's holiest Muslim shrine in the northern Indian city of Ajmer, his first stop.

But although Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will discuss Kashmir, including "softening" the ceasefire line dividing it, and how to strengthen their relations, no major breakthrough is expected almost three years after near-war.

Rather, the visit itself is the breakthrough. Originally planned as an informal visit for President Musharraf to watch India and Pakistan play cricket, it has turned into a virtual summit.

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His first stop was the shrine of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti, which he was to visit in 2001 but cancelled after peace talks with then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee collapsed.

"I wish the differences between the two countries to be reduced and that peace prevails in the region," President Musharraf, in a pink turban and white salwar-kameez, said after praying.

The Indian-born Pakistani leader and the Pakistan-born Indian leader are due to meet for dinner in New Delhi today and for talks on Sunday after watching the start of the sixth and last one-day cricket match between India and Pakistan.

President Musharraf's visit comes a week after a new bus service began between the divided parts of Kashmir, a symbolic step after the neighbours came close to war over the Himalayan region in 2002.

The mood has vastly improved, but the rivals remain far apart on Kashmir and neither expects major progress from this trip.

Violence has increased in Kashmir ahead of the bus service and Musharraf's visit, the army said 12 rebels and a soldier had died in fighting in the past 24 hours.

On Thursday, President Musharraf said he had limited expectations from this visit, but he was optimistic Kashmir could eventually be resolved and the peace process was irreversible.

Last year, President Musharraf suggested possible solutions for Kashmir that could involve a division of the Muslim-majority region on ethnic lines, demilitarisation, a change of its status to independence, joint control, or even UN control.

India has rejected any redrawing of boundaries. Instead, Mr Singh and President Musharraf are due to discuss ways to soften the ceasefire line, including meetings of divided families, more buses, increased tourism and trade and cooperation on forests.

"We need to look at the ... (ceasefire line) not just as a divide but as a bridge," Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh told the latest edition of the Outlook news weekly.

"We need to work towards a situation where borders, even in our part of the world, begin to matter less and less."

President Musharraf is also due to meet Kashmiri separatist leaders, who he says must be brought into peace process for it to work.