ISLAMABAD, Sept 18t: India and Pakistan have made considerable progress on resolving border disputes in the Himalayan mountains and on the shores of the Arabian Sea, President Pervez Musharraf has been quoted as saying. Media reported on Sunday that President Musharraf said both he and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh showed commitment to the peace process begun in January 2004 when they met last week in New York.

“We have made considerable progress on Siachen and Sir Creek issues,” the president told a gathering of American and Pakistani journalists during a one-hour briefing with Time magazine.

Pakistani and Indian media reported that President Musharraf’s meeting with Mr Singh on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last Wednesday had failed to result in any breakthrough on the core dispute over Kashmir, but the president cast it in a positive light.

“We are keeping confidentiality so that the extremists may not derail the peace process,” he told Time.

Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh is expected to visit Pakistan for talks in early October. —Reuters