10 October 2004	Sunday	24 Shaban 1425

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NEW DELHI, Oct 9: Indian Foreign Minister K. Natwar Singh said on Saturday his country s ties with nuclear rival Pakistan had taken a turn for the better but he seemed suspicious about whether Islamabad had fulfilled a pledge to block support for militants fighting Indian rule in Kashmir.

He said now there was a glimmer of hope on the Indo-Pakistan arena after a gloomy period at the start of the 21st century and that New Delhi remained committed to deepen our engagement with Islamabad.

However, the whole process is critically dependent on the fulfilment of President (Pervez) Musharraf's reassurance of January 6, 2004 not to permit any territory under Pakistan s control to be used to support terrorism in any manner, he said in a speech while inaugurating a two-day regional conference on inter-state conflicts in South Asia organised by the South Asian Free Media Association (Safma) non-governmental organization.

He was referring to a January 6 agreement between President Gen Musharraf and India's then-prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, on the fringes of a regional summit in Islamabad, to resume a deadlocked peace process that included a search for a settlement of the long-standing dispute over Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan's pledge not to allow its soil to be used to support what New Delhi calls cross-border terrorism .

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could not keep a schedule to open the conference because of what organisers called a slight indisposition but he sent a signed message for the gathering of journalists and commentators from South Asian countries, telling them that creating a neighbourhood of peace and stability was a high priority of his government.

Messages of good wishes for closer ties between the seven members countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) were also sent by the ruling Congress party's president Sonia Gandhi and opposition leader in Lok Sabha (lower house) L.K. Advani.

Mr Natwar Singh said there was a steady progress recently in the India-Pakistan relations and that New Delhi was committed to moving ahead with what two sides call composite daialogue resumed after the January 6 Musharraf-Vajpayee agreement, which followed a period of high tensions and a military standoff on the borders after the collapse of their 2001 summit in the Indian city of Agra.

Today the climate that characterizes India-Pakistan relations is significantly different as compared to 2002, he said. The two sides have been able to identify the areas of convergence and future cooperation.

The Indian foreign minister recalled his prime minister's constructive and cordial meeting with President Musharraf on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on September 24 and said both men had agreed to restore normality and cooperation and implement conference-building measures.

The Indian prime minister, he said, had also agreed to look at the possibility of building a gas pipeline to India via Pakistan in the larger context of expanding trade and economic relations between the two countries.

While calling for a freer flow of information in the Saarc between the Saarc countries, Mr Singh seemed to be referring to media problems between India and Pakistan when he questioned the justification of raising barriers against ourselves while allowing transnational media organisations, people and products to enter our countries.

"The irony is that misinformation emanating from outside the region finds its way to our own newspapers and television channels. The damage sometimes is serious. Misunderstandings multiply. Rumours take precedence over accuracy. Opinions are paraded as facts. Damage control becomes a semi-permanent activity," he said.

"We all agree with the urgent need to free the movement of media and media products within the region," Mr Singh said. "But we hesitate when we actually come to implementing supportive measures," he added, calling suspicion in minds as the biggest non-tariff barrier encountered in the process.

"We are only limiting opportunities for better understanding among ourselves, he said. Our region needs its own version of the BBC, CNN or Aljazeera (television networks).

FILM MARKET: The minister also called for opening the region's markets for each other's films, educational and entertainment productions such as audio and video CDs and DVDs.

He said though the Indian entertainment industry was very large compared to others in the region, it too was ever hungry for new ideas and inspiration . This presents collaboration opportunities that open up the markets for all Saarc countries.

In welcoming remarks, Safma Secretary-General Imtiaz Alam referred to a landmark visit to the Indian-held Kashmir's two main cities by a group of Pakistani journalists from Oct 6 to 8 and said there should be no-go areas for journalists.

He said the team that he had led in the first trip by any Pakistani media group to the area saw a complete alienation from India in the predominantly Muslim-populated Srinagar though that was not the case in Hindu-majority Jammu.