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Only high-level talks can settle issues: Musharraf

President General Pervez Musharraf has emphasised that only serious dialogue at a high level can settle issues between India and Pakistan.

"Talks between India and Pakistan can yield result only when they are held at high level and with serious intention," he said in an interview to BBC Radio.

He disapproved talks at lower level saying: "It would mean only to sideline the issues."

To a question, Musharraf said the Agra summit was very close to yielding a result. "A draft declaration was finalised with consensus by the Indian prime minister, Indian foreign minister, himself and Pakistan's foreign minister," he said.

He said that 'last moment differences' among the Indian establishment scuttled the deal.

He claimed that the issue of Kashmir has been 'internationalised'. "The leadership across the entire world is talking about the Kashmir and about the importance of its solution," he said. "Such a large-scale projection to the issue of Kashmir has never been given before."

Replying to another query, President Musharraf said he never claimed that it was due to Pakistan's nuclear capability that the danger of Indo-Pak war was averted. "Rather, it was due to Pakistan's conventional deterrence that the war in the region was averted," he said. "The nuclear war is an issue about which one would even not like to think. However, I have stated that it was in response to India's repeated nuclear tests in 1974 and 1998 that Pakistan tested its capability to settle the unconventional balance."

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