LAHORE, Feb 10: Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri said on Monday that extremist elements in India were trying to increase tension with Pakistan to be able to win elections in various states.

Speaking at a news conference at the State Guest House, his first since taking over as foreign minister, Mr Kasuri said the ruling BJP leaders had realized that confrontation with Pakistan had helped them in winning elections in Gujarat and they were raising the temperature again to sweep the polls in other states.

He was asked if the growing tensions could lead to a war between the two countries.

The foreign minister said Pakistan wanted peace in the region and for this purpose was eager to resume a composite dialogue with India.

He said India was trying to get the freedom movement in occupied Kashmir branded terrorism by the world community. To achieve the target it was exploiting the situation created by the Sept 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon and the way they had affected the US thinking.

But, he said, he had told the US authorities during his visit that India was not a victim of terrorism and instead was victimizing the Kashmiri people by perpetrating atrocities on them.

Mr Kasuri said he also made it clear to the US that the world peace would not be possible unless the causes of unrest were addressed on priority basis.

The minister said Pakistan wanted peace in South Asia and it had already given a number of proposals to make the region free of nuclear weapons. He said the US and the international community should play their due role to de-escalate tension in the region.

To a question, Mr Kasuri said imbalance in conventional weapons between Pakistan and India was growing as Islamabad was not receiving weapons from its main supplier, the US, while New Delhi was getting uninterrupted supplies from Russia. This situation, he added, was encouraging India to mount pressure on Pakistan as a result of which race for nuclear weapons was intensifying.

The minister believed that the US would soon restore supplies of spares for various defence systems it had sold to Pakistan.

Mr Kasuri said it would be wrong to liken the MMA leaders with the Taliban as most of them had been ministers or members of parliament in the past. He said they could not be branded religious fanatics nor was there any possibility of the nuclear weapons falling into their hands.