NEW DELHI, Aug 19: A day after the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, perceived by India to be taking its cue from Islamabad, rejected an official invitation to join a controversial election in the Himalayan region, India on Monday ruled out talks with Pakistan on the margins of a SAARC foreign ministers’ conference in Kathmandu.

“There is no question of meeting Pakistan Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Inamul Haq in the present circumstances when infiltration from across the border is continuing,” India’s External Affairs minister Yashwant Sinha told reporters. He was speaking after the swearing-in of former Rajasthan chief minister Bhairon Singh Sekhawat as the country’s new vice-president.

Mr Sinha, who leaves for Kathmandu on Tuesday, said that India- Pakistan ties had failed to show improvement because “Islamabad continued to support cross-border terrorism”.

Maintaining that no meeting between Mr Sinha and Mr Haq at Kathmandu was envisaged, Indian officials were being quoted as insisting that for any dialogue to resume, “Pakistan must first clearly deliver on its pledges to permanently end cross-border terrorism and dismantle terrorist infrastructure, including training camps”.

The official formulation targeting terrorist camps as the next signpost towards a rapprochement with Pakistan appeared to be timed to coincide with the widely-awaited visit from Aug 23 by US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage to both the countries.

Mr Armitage is expected to take a hard look at the progress the two sides have made since his last tour of the region recently that had helped bring down the nuclear temperatures substantially.

Any negative input from Mr Armitage could adversely impact on the Sept 11 visit to New York by President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, diplomats said.

For the present though, New Delhi’s gambit to woo the pro-freedom groups in Kashmir towards the arriving Indian-backed polls in Jammu and Kashmir seems to have been seriously upset.

Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishan Advani said that the APHC’s participation in the forthcoming was always in doubt after Gen Musharraf’s recent statements.

“I think those elements who have some affinity with Pakistan will not take part in these elections... Gen Musharraf’s statements on Kashmir elections are a kind of an order to these elements not to participate in the poll process,” Mr Advani said in an interview to Aaj Tak news channel.

He said that even if the ‘elements’ were still in the process of deciding if they should take part in the election, they “decided not to do so” after Gen Musharraf’s recent statements.

“I feel Hurriyat is influenced by Pakistan,” Mr Advani said.

Mr Advani was asked by the pro-government channel if he saw the Pakistan’s hand in the assassination of APHC leader Abdul Gani Lone as a ploy to discourage polls in Kashmir, he said: “Correct, there is no doubt about that”.

Ruling out postponement of the elections, Mr Advani said: “I don’t think that postponement of polls would ensure wider participation because it is clear that there are elements who are under Pakistan’s influence due to financial reasons or fear. They will not participate.”

“It has to be kept in mind that changing the dates which have already been announced will provoke a reaction among certain sections of the people.”