Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee yesterday called on Pakistan to jointly monitor their disputed Kashmir border, a conciliatory proposal aimed at pulling the nuclear-armed rivals back from their war footing.
Pakistan downplayed the joint patrols offer, saying it was nothing new and unlikely to work in the current climate of tension.
Vajpayee said India and Pakistan should work together to patrol the border and verify Islamic militants were no longer crossing into Indian-controlled Kashmir to launch attacks against Indian security forces and Kashmiris.
It was the first indication in the months-long standoff that India was willing to cooperate with Pakistan in an effort to end the Kashmir insurgency and find a solution to the dispute that dates to independence from Britain in 1947.
"Joint patrolling can be held by India and Pakistan," Vajpayee told a news conference in Almaty, Kazakhstan, shown live on Indian television.
"We want to move away from a path of confrontation to a path of cooperation," Vajpayee said before leaving Kazakhstan, where he had been at a security conference also attended by Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry responded that if India was serious about the proposal, it should be conveyed formally.
"All proposals and counter proposals can be discussed as soon as India signifies a willingness to resume a comprehensive dialogue with Pakistan," the ministry said in a statement.
"The proposal is not new," the ministry said. "Given the state of Pakistan-India relations, mechanisms for joint patrolling are unlikely to work."
The ministry noted that a small UN monitoring force already had a mandate to patrol the confrontation line in Kashmir and that it "may be expanded to perform this role more effectively."
* Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has revived a plan for the two nations to jointly monitor the Line of Control, hoping to avoid the involvement of a third country in their dispute.
* Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, saying that India should not be both the accuser and judge of movement over the Line of Control, suggested that the involvement of a third entity, preferably the US or the UN, was favored by Kirachi.
India has previously ruled this out, however.
Musharraf appeared on Pakistan television yesterday and said tensions had eased, but not ended.
Musharraf suggested the situation could calm down with help from visits to the region in the next few days by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.
"We have hope that these visits will have a positive impact in easing tensions," Musharraf said. "Obviously we are explaining our position. We say there should be de-escalation in tension and the process of dialogue on Kashmir should also start."
Musharraf had said on Tuesday that India "should not be the accuser and the judge" of movement over the Line of Control that divides most of the Himalayan province of Kashmir. He suggested monitoring by the US or UN.
Vajpayee said it was not necessary to have a third country check for infiltration.
Amitabh Mattoo, a member of India's National Security Advisory Board and a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, called Vajpayee's surprise announcement significant.
"It's a great step forward in terms of India showing its flexibility to ensure that there is an objective verification of the situation on the ground," Mattoo said.
But Parvez Hoodhbhoy, a Pakistani nuclear physicist and fierce proponent of denuclearization of the subcontinent, said he doubted Pakistan would agree to joint monitoring, unless India softened its stance on Kashmir.
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