28 October 2004	Thursday	13 Ramazan 1425

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WASHINGTON, Oct 27: The United States said on Wednesday that US Secretary of State Colin Powell did help arrange a telephone conversation between the former Indian and Pakistani prime ministers and rejected former Indian foreign minister Jaswant Singh's claim that Mr Powell's story was "fabricated."

Mr Singh, in a statement issued in New Delhi earlier this week, said Mr Powell's claim that he facilitated a telephone call between Atal Behari Vajpayee and Zafarullah Khan Jamali, was "fabricated and baseless" and "a total concoction."

In an interview to USA Today earlier this week, Mr Powell said: "And I'll never forget the day that President Musharraf, in one of our conversations, as the conversation was ending and the crisis had started to abate about then, said to me: "Do you think if my prime minister were to call the Indian prime minister, he would take the call?

"I said: "I'll call you back in a little while." And we set it up, the call was made. We also arranged for the call to be "How are you?" "Fine. How are you?" "Fine." just to begin this dialogue."

State Department's spokesman Richard Boucher, when asked to comment on Mr Singh's outburst told a Wednesday afternoon briefing in Washington: "The story as told by the secretary is the true story. But I'm not sure what version of it others might have been commenting on."

The secretary, said Mr Boucher, on several occasions has described the efforts that he made to try to support the Indian and Pakistani governments as they made efforts to work together.

The United States, he said, has always praised "the statesmen-like initiatives" the Indian and Pakistani leaders have taken, and "we try to support them at every juncture in a variety of ways, including keeping in touch with them."

"The secretary has kept in close touch with his colleagues on the telephone and will continue to do so," he added.

Mr Boucher said he would not like to get involved in "back and forth" comments on this issue but emphasized the point that the US administration has "stayed in close touch" and "always supported" the dialogue between India and Pakistan.

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