WASHINGTON, June 11: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spent a lot of time discussing the India-Pakistan peace process when she met Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri at her office on Friday afternoon. The issue also popped up in Mr Kasuri’s discussions with National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick.

US lawmakers were equally enthusiastic in promoting the peace process which dominated Mr Kasuri’s talks with Congressman Henry Hyde, chairman House International Relations Committee, and Senator John Warner, chairman Senate Armed Services Committee.

At his breakfast meeting with US lawmakers on the Hill, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee gave Mr Kasuri a copy of resolution 272, which praises “the historic steps India and Pakistan have taken toward achieving bilateral peace” and urges them to “continue down this path of peace so that their children may realize a harmonious future.”

“The US administration was keen to know about developments in the dialogue process and I have conveyed our position on this issue,” Mr Kasuri told Dawn after his meeting with Ms Rice.

“I have briefed them that we now need to move to a conflict resolution stage and to resolve all outstanding issues between Pakistan and India, especially the issue of Jammu and Kashmir, which has led to six wars between the two countries,” he said.

Asked if he saw a link between enhanced US interests in the peace process and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Washington next month, Mr Kasuri said: “I have given you the context, it is up to you to see the link but I can assure you that there’s a good appreciation of Pakistan’s position in the US administration.”

US and diplomatic sources told Dawn that they have noticed an obvious “excitement” in Washington over the India-Pakistan peace process. They pointed out that although President Bush has launched two major US military invasions during his stay in the White House, he has not yet concluded any successful peace agreement.

“With a peaceful resolution of the Palestinian dispute not yet in sight, the Bush administration is encouraging India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir dispute before Mr Bush’s second and last term expires,” said a former senior official of the State Department.

David Kux, another former State Department official and a renowned expert on South Asian affairs, said that since signing peace accord in January 2004, both India and Pakistan have moved “very, very rapidly” to carry forward the peace process.

President Bush also noted this and in his meeting with Mr Kasuri he said he was “amazed” at the progress so far made by India and Pakistan. The Bush administration has also noted with satisfaction that even a change of government in India did not harm the process.

Such developments have convinced the Bush administration that there exists an opportunity for playing a key role in resolving one of the world’s major disputes and a possible nuclear flashpoint, Kashmir, diplomatic observers say.

The Bush administration, the sources say, also has noticed an encouraging change in India’s attitude towards US involvement in the process.

Publicly, India still opposes third party mediation in its disputes with Pakistan, particularly over Kashmir, but has accepted the role of a silent facilitator that the United States has been playing since the process began.