NEW DELHI: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that incremental talks with India are better than no talks, and listed Kashmir and water disputes as issues that could not be wished away in any case.

‘We have many outstanding issues,’ he told NDTV ahead of his meeting with Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna in New York. ‘Kashmir, water … cannot be shoved under the carpet. But we want to move in a pragmatic and realistic manner. I feel incremental progress is better than no progress.’

When asked if naming top diplomat Riaz Khan as special envoy for informal peace talks with India suggested one way to do that, he said he would discuss the matter with Mr. Krishna. ‘I will find out his views on the back channel. I have my views on the back channel. I want to hear his views.’

Mr Qureshi’s comments followed remarks by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in which he urged Pakistan to give up using terror as an instrument of state policy.

‘India’s message is that we seek to normalise its relations with Pakistan,’

Dr Singh said on his way back from the G20 summit in Pittsburgh. ‘The only obstacle is that Pakistan should give up its old attitude regarding the use of terror as an instrument of state policy.