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Talks tomorrow if Pak. gives up terrorism: PM

By Amit Baruah

KUALA LUMPUR Feb. 22. The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, said today that India and Pakistan could begin talks tomorrow if Islamabad gave up cross-border terrorism but ruled out the possibility of a meeting with that country's President, Pervez Musharaff.

Asked if there was American pressure on India to talk to Pakistan, Mr. Vajpayee told presspersons on board his special aircraft that India had told its friends that it was ready to begin talks if Pakistan eschewed cross-border terrorism.

Before boarding the aircraft to Kuala Lumpur to attend the XII Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit, the Prime Minister said terrorism would definitely figure in the deliberations of the February 24-25 summit. The NAM should avert a war on Iraq and all countries should accept that further action should flow from the U.N. Security Council route. Mr. Vajpayee said a lot depended on what stand the NAM took on Iraq insofar as the continued relevance of the movement was concerned.

On the coming elections in Himachal Pradesh, he said the contest was quite even (`Barabar ki takkar hai') though the Congress had forged ahead earlier. The BJP would have to work hard for victory. Mr. Vajpayee appeared hurt about the recent pamphlets brought out in Madhya Pradesh on the "beef-eating" issue. Nobody (from the Congress) had even bothered to admit there had been a mistake. The Prime Minister, who is expected to meet several leaders, including the Cuban President, Fidel Castro, on the sidelines of the summit, said the NAM should contribute to the building of a multipolar world order.

The NAM Foreign Ministers, meanwhile, agreed on a draft resolution to be issued by their Heads of State/Government on the Iraq situation. Sources said all direct references to the United States were removed and that the Foreign Ministers agreed upon a milder version of the draft resolution. Stressing the centrality of the U.N. and the Security Council, the draft said: "We believe the peaceful resolution of the Iraqi crisis would ensure that the Security Council will also be in a position to ensure Iraq's sovereignty and the inviolability of its territorial integrity, political independence and security, and compliance with Paragraph 14 of its Resolution 687 on the establishment in the Middle East of a weapons of mass destruction-free zone, which includes Israel."

In a separate briefing, the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, said NAM Foreign Ministers had agreed on a draft statement on Iraq. He, however, criticised some countries that were prepared to adopt the most strident resolution and then make their territories available for a war against Iraq. This kind of contradiction and dichotomy should be avoided, he added.

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