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Show results, Bush tells Musharraf

PARIS MAY 26. The United States President, George W. Bush, today told the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, to ``show results'' in keeping militants from carrying out terrorist acts in Kashmir. That issue, he said, was more important than Pakistan's two missile tests.

After meeting with the French President, Jacques Chirac, he said the U.S. had expressed its concerns about the tests to the Musharraf Government. But he said, he was more interested in seeing Gen. Musharraf take action to prevent attacks in Kashmir, where Indian soldiers and civilians have been killed.

``I'm more concerned about making sure that President Musharraf shows results in terms of stopping people from crossing the Line of Control,'' he said. ``Stopping terrorism. That is more important than missile testing.''

Mr. Bush today joined his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in expressing his ``strong reservations'' over the missile tests conducted by Pakistan even as the current India-Pakistan standoff figured prominently during the talks.

``We are spending a lot of time on this subject,'' said Mr. Bush, whose summit with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, moved to Russia's former imperial capital of St. Petersburg today from Moscow.

``We are making it very clear to both parties that there is no benefit in war, there is no benefit in a clash that could lead to wider war. We are deeply concerned about the rhetoric. There is a lot of diplomatic effort going into bringing some calm and reason to the region,'' he added.

``Obviously we hope that there is restraint in the area, that the tests will not be seen as a provocation'', Mr. Bush told presspersons here. ``Everyone can understand danger in the region. We are hopeful that slowly but surely we can erode that distrust'', he said, adding that ``we just have got to continue to work the problem''.

Mr. Putin also expressed regrets over the tests.

The leaders continued to pressurise Gen. Musharraf to stop cross border terrorism in Kashmir.

``We are deeply concerned about the rhetoric. It is very important for President Musharraf to do what he said he's going to do on terror, and that is stop the incursions across the LoC'', Mr. Bush said while urging Gen. Musharraf to put a curb on Islamic militancy. — AP, Reuters, PTI

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