ISLAMABAD, Nov 19: The United States has assured Pakistan of its “abiding interest” in helping to resume by early 2004 peace dialogue between Islamabad and New Delhi.

Sources told Dawn here on Wednesday that US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and US Deputy National Security Advisor Steve Hadley had assured Pakistan Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar in their meetings with him on Nov 14 in Washington that New Delhi was being asked to hold talks with Islamabad to sort out contentious issues including that of Jammu and Kashmir.

Both the senior US officials said that they were expecting a “positive reply” from India to engage itself in talks with Pakistan early next year, if it could not be done in December due to various compulsions including elections in four states ruled by the opposition Congress party.

The foreign secretary, the sources said, told the US authorities that Pakistan did not see an early resumption of dialogue as India continued to link further talks with the success of negotiations on overflights and airlinks scheduled for Dec 1 in New Delhi.

“The signals we are receiving from India are that every thing is being made contingent upon these negotiations and this Indian approach to peace talks has been conveyed to our American friends,” one source said.

He pointed out that overflights were unilaterally suspended by India, and Pakistan at present only wanted certain assurances and guarantees that it would not happen again. “But the Indians seem reluctant to offer any assurance or guarantee and would make it an excuse to scuttle the air talks and thereby delaying substantive peace talks with Pakistan,” he asserted.

The sources said the US government had been told that India’s 12 Confidence Building Measures (CBM) were merely a “tactical move” and that unless there was a real pressure from Washington, New Delhi would not come to the negotiating table.

“The senior US officials say that there should be a lowering of rhetoric and that dialogue between the two nuclear rivals must begin without further delay,” another source said.

The Pakistan government has also expressed its concern the way Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee started his election campaign by bracketing Pakistan with Al Qaeda. The government, the sources said, expected the Indian leaders to avoid behaving like “street goons” and not make Pakistan an election stunt.

In previous elections too, Mr Vajpayee, L. K. Advani and George Fernendas used highly derogatory language against Islamabad and Pakistani leaders about which the US government has been taken into confidence.

With the state election in India around the corner, sources said, repression in occupied Kashmir has increased. This, the sources said, has been highlighted by New York Times’ senior correspondent David Road in one of his recent articles written after visiting Srinagar.

Mr Road said that due to increased repression, Kashmiris were fleeing to Pakistan through Line of Control (LoC). And at the same time, serious health problems were increasing due to which hospitals were full of patients in the occupied valley.

“More young Kashmiris are joining militancy due to unprecedented repression and the important capitals of the World including Washington have just been informed by Pakistan,” a source said.