NEW YORK, Sept 12: Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri said on Monday that contacts with Israel would create diplomatic space for Pakistan. “But the contacts do not amount to the recognition of the Jewish state. There can be no recognition before a viable solution to the Palestinian issue is found,” Mr Kasuri told a briefing in New York.

Asked to explain “the diplomatic space” he believed the contacts would create, Mr Kasuri said: “That’s open for interpretation. We leave that to your imagination.”

He said Pakistan had given a signal to Israel that if it’s prepared to resolve the Palestinian issue, “there’s no reason why the Muslim world would not respond positively to it.”

Mr Kasuri said the Palestinian dispute was one of the issues that contributed to the spread of terrorism and Pakistan as “a direct victim of this terrorism, want this issue resolved.”

He said that Jews and Muslims alike had “a very strong vested interest in seeing that this global trend in terrorism is stopped.”

Mr Kasuri said that while Pakistan understood that this dispute could only be resolved by Palestinians and Israelis, “we feel that we can play a role through our contacts with Israel.”

Asked if the president was going to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Mr Kasuri said so far no meeting was planned with the Israeli leader.

Mr Kasuri said his Sept 1 meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Sharon “did not come out of the blue.” President Musharraf, he said, had urged the nation three years ago to debate the issue of having some contacts with Israel and the meeting was held after considering all aspects of this issue.

Asked how would people in Pakistan respond to a meeting with Mr Sharon, the foreign minister said: “You should digest the first meeting first. We will have to monitor public reaction before moving on to another meeting.”