Time to resume Indo-Pak talks, Musharraf

It is time to resume talks on Kashmir and other issues as India and Pakistan have played their role in normalising ties by initiating a series of confidence building measures, President Pervez Musharraf said on Tuesday.

"The environment has been created. We played our role. They also played their role. Now the way forward, certainly, is starting a composite dialogue, and this composite dialogue must include Kashmir," he said while addressing the annual reception dinner of Pakistani Americans Political Action Committee at Rawalpindi.

Referring to the CBMs, he said Pakistan took "strong" decisions like declaring ceasefire on the Line of Control and the resumption of air links and overflights

"It was our magnanimity. It was our spirit of developing confidence for the sake of peace and for sake of harmony in the relations," he said and pointed out that India lost "heavily" due to Pakistan's ban on Indian over-flights.

Pakistan will encourage the recent "rapprochement and thaw and we will go more than half the way to encourage it. This is my message to the Indians", the official media quoted him as saying.

Musharraf said he looks forward to addressing the issue of moving ahead from this "good start" when Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee attends the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation in Islamabad.