Indian Premier

ISLAMABAD, May 5 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Amidst measures of thawing tensions on the subcontinent, India has formally approved Monday, May 5, Pakistan Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali's invitation for talks with his Indian counterpart.

Jamali had sent a written invitation to his Indian counterpart Atal Behari Vajpayee Friday, formalizing his telephoned offer on April 28 for talks in Pakistan.

"We have received a response and it is a positive response," Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan told a press briefing, according to Agence France Presse (AFP).

Khan said he could not give details but expressed optimism that dialogue was a real prospect. "It calls for a dialogue process. We will look at the letter and then we'll move from there. Hopefully it will start soon."

The intended talks between the two nuclear states come ahead of visits to both countries this week by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Christina Rocca.

They are due in Islamabad late Wednesday for talks the following day with President Pervez Musharraf and Jamali, U.S. and Pakistani officials said.

Armitage, the U.S. administration's chief troubleshooter, is credited with pulling the nuclear neighbors back from the brink of conflict almost 12 months ago.

The current easing in tensions was triggered by Vajpayee's April 18 offer to sit down to talks called for repeatedly by Pakistan. Khan said relations with India would be on the agenda during such visits.

"Of course during that visit the situation vis-a-vis India and all other issues will also be discussed," Khan told a press conference.

Jamali was due to meet later Monday the opposition and parties in the ruling coalition to discuss "a joint strategy" on approaching the first talks with its rival since a 17-month old impasse took hold.

Jamali has earlier summoned representatives of major parties to meet him at his official residence at 8:00 pm (1500 GMT) to discuss "a joint strategy" on approaching the first talks with Pakistan's nuclear rival since a 17-month old impasse took hold.

"All major parties, the allies of the government and the opposition parties have been invited," a spokesman for Jamali told AFP.

The two sides have been locked in a standoff since December 2001 when India blamed Pakistan for a deadly attack on its parliament. Pakistan denied any link to the attack, in which nine people plus the five gunmen were killed.

Diplomatic, air, trade, cultural and sporting ties were severed, and for 10 months one million troops from both sides were deployed along their border.

Vajpayee on Friday announced India would send an ambassador back to Islamabad and restore civil aviation links. Pakistani officials have pledged to reciprocate the move, although a formal announcement has yet to be made.

Senior Islamic lawmaker Qazi Hussain Ahmed, who heads Pakistan's largest Muslim party Jamaat-i-Islami, on Saturday called on the government to consult the parliament before taking moves towards dialogue any further.

Jamali, addressing a rally of 4,000 people Sunday in the north-west city of Mansehra, also flagged the possibility of calling a special session of parliament to debate developments with New Delhi.

"It is my duty to consult all political parties and I hope that we can reach a positive conclusion," he told reporters after the rally. Khan said the Indian moves were not groundbreaking.

"These are all welcome measures, but these are measures that bring us to a situation where we were almost a year and a half ago," he said.

Pakistani Premier

However he added: "For every gesture there will be a positive response from our side."

Pakistani officials have been eager to stress that they have been calling for dialogue long before Vajpayee's olive branch last month.

"We have (always) said the best solution was through dialogue," Khan said.

"When tensions were created at the borders and forces were mobilized along the borders we had still maintained that the best way is to have dialogue rather than a show of force."

"We are glad that slowly and gradually all those measures have been withdrawn, and now a situation is created where we hope the dialogue would start very soon."

Jamali has also flagged the possibility of calling a special session of parliament to debate developments with New Delhi.

The peace overtures have spawned a wave of cautious optimism in Pakistan, although few are predicting a full resolution of the core dispute over Kashmir, divided between the two and claimed by both.

“The clouds of a nuclear collision over the South Asian horizon have happily disappeared and the bitter rhetoric has been replaced by words of good cheer," The News daily wrote.

But it warned: "Failure will cost (Jamali and Vajpayee) and their countries dearly."