BEIJING, June 21: Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has said China is looking forward to a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir dispute.

In an interview with the Indian media, before Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s six-day state visit to Beijing beginning on Sunday, he said India and Pakistan should settle their bilateral disputes through dialogue.

Mr Wen Jiabao hoped that Vajpayee’s visit will have a positive impact on the bilateral relations as well as regional peace and stability. He allayed fears that China might emerge as a threat and seek hegemony in the region because of its rising economic and military might.

Separately, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said India and China should draw on lessons of the past to avoid tensions in future.

“We should take history as a mirror instead of being burdened by it,” he told CCTV in an interview broadcast on Saturday, a day before he heads for Beijing. —Agencies

Jawed Naqvi adds from New Delhi: India and China will scout for a multi-polar global architecture during the Indian prime minister’s China trip which Mr Vajpayee said could nudge the two countries into a powerful association of the two largest Asian countries.

Mr Vajpayee’s Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao said Beijing was prepared to advance the pace of talks to resolve their Himalayan border dispute which had inflicted a bruising war on India in 1962.

Mr Wen was quoted by Indian news reports from Beijing as also expressing his support for a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute. There were no details. In a way the dispute also involves China, since Mr Vajpayee had raised the issue at the Agra summit about the part of Kashmir ceded to Beijing by Islamabad.

Mr Wen described the Sino-Indian border dispute as “a historical burden on our two countries left over by the colonialists.”

He said China wants a “fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution to the issue, a solution that can be found through bilateral talks in accordance with the principles of consultation on an equal footing, mutual understanding, mutual accommodation and mutual adjustment.”

While the two sides are negotiating a solution, Beijing and New Delhi should do their “very best” to keep the border areas peaceful and tranquil, Wen said. The two countries had signed a landmark agreement in September 1993 to keep their border peaceful and tranquil.

Vajpayee told Xinhua news agency that the two countries could double their bilateral trade from $5 billion at present within two years.

“With a commitment to the five principles of peaceful co-existence and with mutual sensitivity to the concern of each other, the two countries can construct an enduring and powerful partnership,” Mr Vajpayee said.

“We have successfully developed mutually beneficial bilateral cooperation, while simultaneously addressing our differences,” the prime minister said.