January 3, 2002	Thursday	Shawwal 18, 1422

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LONDON, Jan 2: British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s office said late on Tuesday that the premier wants to mediate between Pakistan and India over the Kashmir dispute.

Mr Blair is to begin a diplomatic mission in the region this week. His first stop would be Bangladesh, where he was due on Thursday.

Blair is to urge restraint from both islamabad and Delhi and prod them to resume their dialogue, according to information from Downing Street.

However, British Foreign Minister Jack Straw said: “Expectations about the potential of the prime minister’s visit to defuse tensions should not be raised too much.”

“There is no Blair peace plan that the prime minister could or should take out of his pocket,” Straw said in an interview with BBC radio.

British opposition politicians urged Blair to tread carefully and remember Britain’s responsibility for the Kashmir dispute.

“The problem of Kashmir is a problem which dates back to the partition of India in 1947, for which Britain was responsible,” said Menzies Campbell, foreign affairs spokesman for the opposition Liberal Democrats.

“Any question of the former colonial power trying to exercise influence...could be deeply damaging.”

Straw said there was no question of Blair barging into the dispute. “It is essentially a bilateral dispute, it can only be resolved bilaterally between India and Pakistan,” he said.

Straw said Blair’s trip had been planned long in advance, before relations between India and Pakistan dived to their present level of hostility.—dpa\Reuters