"It is…important for both India and Pakistan to engage in serious discussions for nuclear and strategic stability in our region," Jamali asserted

ISLAMABAD, May 6 (Islamonline.net & News Agencies) – In yet another reciprocated goodwill gesture towards arch-foe India, Pakistani Premier Zafarullah Jamali announced Tuesday, May 6, his country would soon resume all air, rail and bus links with New Deli.

He asserted that "encouraged by the recent positive developments and in order to set a stage for meaningful dialogue with India", Islamabad decided to take a series of confidence-building measures.

Train and bus services will be resumed immediately upon acceptance by India, he elaborated, adding that air links would resume soon afterwards.

The government also decided to immediately release all Indian fishermen, as well as 22 Sikh youths and the 14 crew members of a seized Indian cargo vessel, Jamali said.

Sports ties will be resumed, beginning with cricket and hockey, he added.

The Pakistani premier also proposed the two nuclear-armed neighbours engage in serious discussions on nuclear and strategic stability, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"Nuclear realities in our region impose certain obligations and responsibilities on our two countries," Jamali said.

"It is therefore important for both India and Pakistan to engage in serious discussions for nuclear and strategic stability in our region," he asserted.

Pakistan supports the confidence-building measures outlined in the memorandum of understanding signed during Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's visit to Lahore in February 1999, he added.

"We hope that a reconvened dialogue will enable us to conclude substantive and result-oriented measures for arms restraint and promotion of security in our region," said Jamali.

Opposition Supportive

The Pakistani premier also reaffirmed the full backing of opposition parties to pursuing talks with India as U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage headed to the region to spur on a peace bid between the nuclear rivals.

"All the leaders gave me a mandate to hold meaningful dialogue with India," Jamali said after consulting opposition leaders, including top Islamist MPs, and government-allied parties.

Islamist party leaders have pledged full support for the detente with India -- on the condition that Pakistan maintain its long-held demand for a plebiscite among Kashmiris to choose rule by New Delhi or Islamabad.

"We made it clear there should be no deviation from Pakistan's stand on Kashmir" Liaqat Baloch of the Islamic party alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal told AFP.

Jamali assured the Islamic parties that Pakistan would not budge from its demand for self-determination in Kashmir.

Officials expect the first exploratory talks, at either ambassadorial or foreign secretary level, in June.

Peace overtures between the hostile neighbours in the past three weeks have spawned hopes of their first dialogue in almost two years and a normalisation of relations after a tense 17-month standoff.

Vajpayee agreed on April 18 to Pakistan's long-held call for talks and Jamali reciprocated by sending him a formal invitation to visit Pakistan.

Commenting on his phone call with Vajpayee on April 28, Jamali said "I sensed a positive desire on his part to break the impasse in our relationship".

Armitage Steps In

"I think we have got a lot of work to do," said Armitage

Veteran American rouble-shooter Armitage cautioned before starting his tour there was still a long way to go in easing tensions that have kept the nuclear-ready subcontinent on edge since December 2001.

"I think we have got a lot of work to do to continue to lower the temperatures for two great countries India and Pakistan to be able to live in peace and stability with each other," he told the BBC in an interview.

Almost 12 months ago Armitage was in the region to prevent war.

Spearheading an emergency round of shuttle diplomacy between New Delhi and Islamabad, he elicited a pledge from President Pervez Musharraf to halt infiltrations from Pakistan by fighters disputing Indian rule in Kashmir.

The pledge was pivotal in cooling tensions and led ultimately to India withdrawing the hundreds of thousands of troops it had mobilised to its western border after blaming Pakistan for the deadly December 2001 attack on its parliament.

Armitage welcomed as "a good gesture" Pakistan's reiteration of its pledge to get rid of its nuclear arsenal if India does the same, but he cautioned "we have to keep our appetites under control."

Musharraf told the Urdu-language ARY television channel that South Asia could be de-nuclearised provided "the Kashmir dispute is resolved and there is peace and security in the region."

"This has been Pakistan's stand because our concern is our security."

As early as 1995 Pakistan moved a resolution at the United Nations for the de-nuclearisation of the subcontinent.

Musharraf also called for a no-war pact with India.