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US warns Pakistan over J&K polls

US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Monday night assured India that Washington would continue to press Pakistan to stop cross-border infiltration into Jammu and Kashmir.

Powell spoke at a joint appearance with External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha after their talks at the state department.

"We discussed the situation across the border. We have reaffirmed to the minister [Sinha] we would continue to press the Pakistani government to do everything possible to stop cross-border infiltration, and to remind them of the commitment they have made not only to the United States, but to the international community that they do not support such activity and would work actively to stop it," Powell said.

He said he and Sinha also talked about the upcoming elections in Jammu and Kashmir and "I reaffirmed to the minister we spoke to the Pakistanis about not interfering in any way with these elections".

On India's permanent membership of the UN Security Council, Powell said it did not figure in their talks.

Both Powell and Sinha said their talks were by no means confined to the narrow field of Indo-Pak relations or even regional issues, but extended to broader bilateral relations.

"Today, we had an opportunity to discuss some immediate regional issues, Afghanistan, the situation along the Line of Control, but most of our time was spent on the broader bilateral relationship between India and the United States," he said.

"And so I was very pleased with the conversation because it was expanded in the sense that we talked not only about immediate problems but the elements in our relationship that the two people are looking to -- economics, trade, research and development cooperation in a variety of different areas, and we are looking forward to President [George] Bush meeting with Prime Minister [Atal Bihari] Vajpayee later this week to pursue these issues," he said.

Sinha said they had a very fruitful meeting. "I am very glad we had this meeting in the state department."

"We have covered a wide variety of areas in our bilateral relationship and I am very happy that we have laid a great deal of emphasis on furthering our bilateral cooperation in various areas," he said.

PTI

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