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Pak. ready to name official to discuss agenda for talks

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD APRIL 22. Pakistan today formally welcomed the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee's offer of dialogue while complaining that he had "contradicted himself" by invoking conditionalities. Pakistan also expressed its readiness to nominate a senior official to discuss the agenda for talks.

A Foreign Office spokesman in a statement said that Pakistan welcomed the "positive elements" in Mr. Vajpayee's speech in Srinagar. The statement came after the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, said he would back whatever "decision" his Prime Minister, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, took in response to Mr. Vajpayee's peace offer. He told correspondents in Lahore on Monday that Mr. Jamali had already welcomed the statement made by Mr. Vajpayee. "I would support whatever the Prime Minister decides'', he said.

It is also significant that the Pakistan Foreign Office statement came after the return of the Foreign Minister, Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, from Riyadh. He had gone to Saudi Arabia for consultations with the leaders of Arab states on Iraq. Mr. Kasuri told reporters that Pakistan was ready for a `neutral mechanism', consisting of representatives of six or seven countries, to verify charges of infiltration. The Foreign Office statement said that Pakistan believed that given goodwill and honest intentions, all issues could be resolved peacefully through a dialogue.

PM statement today

NEW DELHI, APRIL 22. The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, will make a statement in the Lok Sabha tomorrow on his fresh offer of friendship to Pakistan during his Srinagar visit. He will make the statement in the Upper House on Thursday, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj, said. -PTI

Related Stories:
PM extends `hand of friendship' to Pakistan
Waiting for Pak. response to offer of friendship: PM
A positive gesture: Pak. Minister

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