PAKISTAN: Pakistan's Prime Minister Mr Zafarullah Khan Jamali has invited opposition leaders to discuss improving ties with India, raising hopes that the nuclear-armed rivals can resolve their long dispute over Kashmir.
In an unusual move, Mr Jamali has invited all parliamentary opposition leaders, members of his own party and allies for a meeting today on the latest developments with India.
India's Prime Minister Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee ended a two-year chill in ties on Friday, saying India would name an ambassador to Pakistan and resume air links.
Pakistan welcomed Mr Vajpayee's gesture, saying the "ice was starting to melt" between the two sides which came close to war on at least two occasions last year.
This was the first high-level contact between the neighbours after the December 2001 attack on the Indian parliament that New Delhi blamed on Islamabad-backed gunmen. The strike resulted in the two sides mobilising their armies along the 2,200 mile border, recalling their high commissioners, downgrading diplomatic ties and severing rail and road links.
"This will be my life's last endeavour to make peace with Pakistan and I am sure we will succeed," Mr Vajpayee declared, ahead of US Deputy Secretary of State Mr Richard Armitage's visit to the region this week to try and reduce tension between India and Pakistan.
Mr Vajpayee, however, rejected Islamabad's call for international mediation to resolve the bitter 55-year-old dispute over Kashmir, which is divided between the two but claimed by both.
But for a "conducive atmosphere for sustained dialogue", Mr Vajpayee stated Islamabad would have to end cross-border terrorism in Kashmir and to dismantle its infrastructure.
India accuses Pakistan of "sponsoring" the 14-year-old Kashmiri insurgency that has claimed over 40,000 lives. Pakistan denies the allegation, claiming to provide the Kashmiri separatist movement only "political and diplomatic support ".
Indian officials have denied that the US is behind the latest peace initiative between India and Pakistan.
