Bangkok, June 24: Pakistan's foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri said today he was optimistic about a future peace deal with India and said war was "not a viable option" for resolving the Kashmir issue. "We have to talk and talk continuously, uninterrupted and uninterruptedly, regardless of the ups and downs of the ebbs and flows," Kasuri told a news agency during an interview in the Thai capital.

"We've come to the conclusion that war is not a viable option," he said, adding that the possibility of future peace "is more propitious than it has been in the past." The foreign minister, who was in Thailand after attending the Asian cooperation dialogue at the weekend, said there were several factors why he felt "this time may be for real."

The international community was no longer willing to listen to hollow claims of national sovereignty over the issue, particularly since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the war in Iraq, he said.

"There is no guarantee the international community will remain as uninterested observers if the events of last year are repeated again," he said. Bureau Report