10 January 2005	Monday	28 Ziqa'ad 1425

ISLAMABAD, Jan 9: Foreign Office Spokesman Masood Ahmed Khan has said Pakistan did its best to resolve the Baglihar issue with India through talks but could not succeed.

Talking to the BBC he said India-Pakistan talks on the Baglihar project ended without yielding any result. The dialogue continued for four days but failed to provide any tangible outcome. The Pakistani side did its best to resolve the issue through talks but could not succeed, he added.

He said, "We came to know in May last year that the issue could not be resolve through talks as the Indian government was not positively responding on technical objections and apprehensions."

To a question he said, "Our priority was to resolve the issue through bilateral talks, and we tried our level best. We conveyed our objections to India and made every thing crystal clear to them."

The Pakistan government decided in November that the issue would be taken up with the World Bank if bilateral talks collapsed in this regard, he said. Replying to another question, he said the report would be submitted before the government, but the basic objectives of the talks were not achieved.

"We will take the next step keeping in mind the results of the recent talks," he added. To a question about the impact of the Baglihar issue on the ongoing talks process between the two countries he said not directly but 'it can put indirect impact on it because efforts are being continued to create atmosphere of confidence between the two countries'.

The dialogue, he said, could not be held without confidence, therefore the talks on Baglihar issue would indirectly affect India-Pakistan peace talks. "We should try to reduce distrust to resolve difficult issues with Confidence Building Measures (CBMs)," he added. -APP