Indian Hawk Hints at Talks With Pakistan

The most hawkish member of the Indian government offered open-ended talks with Pakistan yesterday on the disputed Himalayan state of Kashmir if Pakistan ended its "proxy terrorist war" against India.

In an interview with the Guardian, India's deputy prime minister, Lal Krishna Advani, said that if the "killing of innocents stops we will find a solution for everything once we start talking".

Significantly Mr Advani would not discount a future change in Kashmir's sovereign status - which is divided between India and Pakistan, but claimed in its entirety by both. The two nuclear-armed powers nearly came to war in the region last year.

A peace process was initiated by the Indian prime minister in April. He said he would make his "third and final attempt" at a settlement, but the rapprochement has been moving at a painfully slow pace.

Mr Advani, a central figure in the Hindu nationalist party which took power in Delhi in 1998, was considered to be sceptical of any attempt at peaceful dialogue.

After a terrorist attack 18 months ago on the Indian parliament saw both countries deploy hundreds of thousands of troops on their 1,800-mile border, Mr Advani called for strikes deep into Pakistani territory and for "hot pursuit" of enemy forces.

But the deputy prime minister now says it is not in the interest of either country to be in a state of "perpetual tension".

He said: "After all if you disagree so sharply on an issue as India and Pakistan disagree on the question of Jammu and Kashmir and if a settlement has to come about then it can only be in the form of some compromise in which both sides have to give and take in relation to their present positions."

Mr Advani's offer of wide-ranging talks, which raises the possibility of concessions, comes after a two-week trip to Washington, where he had meetings with both the US vice-president, Dick Cheney, and President George Bush, and a three-day visit to Britain which included a meeting with Tony Blair.

In what appeared as choreographed diplomacy, Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, met Mr Blair in London yesterday and will see Mr Bush next week at Camp David.

The Pakistani president yesterday denied Indian claims that he was allowing Muslim militants to infiltrate into Kashmir. But Mr Advani repeatedly stressed that terrorist attacks in Kashmir were the work of Pakistan, describing them as "state controlled".

Mr Advani said Mr Bush had promised to ask Gen Musharraf to "create a climate which is conducive for meaningful talks".

He also called for more western pressure on Pakistan.

"What restrains Washington from exercising its influence is the fear, if there is pressure, the present leader would be dislodged and whoever takes his place would be worse. Our assessment is this is not correct," he said.

There are signs of increasing Indian-US cooperation. Washington has asked for Indian troops to be sent for peacekeeping purposes to Iraq. Reports from the US suggest a deal between India and the US that would see America sanction exports of sensitive military hardware if India responded positively by supplying manpower for nation-building in Iraq.

Mr Advani would only say that it was still an "open issue", but America had sent a team to Delhi to "clarify the questions India had in mind".

Mr Advani is seen as a possible future Indian prime minister. A controversial figure, he came to national and international prominence as the chief instigator of the successful campaign by Hindu fundamentalists to demolish a 16th-century mosque in northern India in 1992.

After the mosque was reduced to rubble, a wave of violence spread across the country, culminating in the worst Hindu-Muslim riots since independence.