Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh said on Sunday Pakistan was developing a "compulsively hostile policy" towards his country. "This hostile approach was Pakistan`s "raison d`etre" as a nation and it was this, rather than the disputed territory of Kashmir, that was the principal problem between the two South Asian neighbours," Singh said in an interview with right-wing Spanish newspaper El Mundo. Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and is claimed by both. It is the cause of two of the three wars the two nuclear powers have fought since the subcontinent`s independence from British rule in 1947.

Singh said that Pakistan had to decide what kind of long-term relationship it wanted with India, which has ruled out any resumption of talks over Kashmir until Pakistan halts its alleged support for armed militants there. He pointed out that the "wise men" in the West who said the current Pakistani president, General Pervez Musharraf, was the best choice had said the same thing about the five generals who preceded him.

Pakistan had to become a socially stable, economically viable country, he said. It was difficult to see how this could come about but the important thing was to ensure it happened in a peaceful manner, without stering "terrorism", he stressed. Singh said that British-born Islamic militant Sheikh Omar had been allowed to live quite happily in Pakistan until he kidnapped a US journalist. Omar is the chief suspect in the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl.

Bureau Report