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Pakistan blames India for failure of talks

Pakistan blamed India on Monday night for the "failure" of the Agra summit, saying the hosts failed to agree to certain "crucial" proposals contained in a draft agreement.

"President Pervez Musharraf waited for the Indian response for signing the agreement. Since it was not there, the president has decided to leave" for Islamabad, the Pakistani government's spokesman, Ashfaq Ahmed Gondal, told reporters in Agra.

The official Pakistan government spokesman said, "External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh had earlier agreed to incorporate changes asked for by Pakistan before lunch, but despite waiting for long, these changes were not agreed to by the Indian side."

Musharraf's spokesman Maj Gen Rashid Qureshi said, "The draft agreement was changed two times after the two leaders (Vajpayee and Musharaff) had approved it. This did not stop here and even for the third time changes were sought to be made after the two leaders had cleared the statement."

"There seems to be an invisible hand in delaying the statement," he said, without elaborating.

PTI

Indo-Pak Summit 2001: The Complete Coverage

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