ISLAMABAD, Nov 20: After President Pervez Musharraf’s impassioned ‘peace offering’ to India at the International Donors’ Conference here on Saturday that caught the Indian delegation off-guard foreign minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri explained to his Indian counterpart that it was a sincere call and not a point-scoring gimmick.

This was conveyed to the Indian Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahmed when he called on the foreign minister at the Foreign Office later in the evening, it is learnt.

Mr Kasuri reiterated that President Musharraf had made the appeal in all earnestness, informed sources said.

“During the 30-minute meeting Mr Kasuri made it clear to the Indian minister that point-scoring was not the underlying objective of President’s appeal on Kashmir but peaceful settlement of the dispute.

The proposal of demilitarizing the entire Kashmir also figured in the discussions, the sources said.

“The foreign minister while speaking with the Indian Minister of State for External Affairs expressed the hope that the third round of composite dialogue starting early next year will be more result-oriented than the second one which was more result-oriented than the first one,” a foreign ministry statement said.

The undertone of the declaration was that there ought to be forward movement on the core issue of Kashmir.

While the president’s ‘peace call’ went down quite well at the conference and widely endorsed by foreign dignitaries, the Indian delegation apparently did not appreciate the emphatic call on Kashmir in the presence of the world community.

There were 75 delegations at the conference representing foreign countries and international organizations.

Gen Musharraf had made a strong appeal to the Indian leadership, the civil society and all the stakeholders to come together to help settle the Kashmir dispute.

Welcoming the participation of the Indian delegation at the conference, the president underscored that the quake had created a unique sentiment of togetherness, an urge to help each other within the people of Kashmir on both sides of the LoC as well as the people of Pakistan and India.

Emphasising that such fleeting opportunities did not come every day, he stated: “If leaders fail to grasp these opportunities they fail their people and nations.”

President Musharraf’s passionate plea to the nuclear armed neighbour was: “Let success and happiness emerge from the ruins of catastrophe especially for the devastated people of Kashmir.”

His plea on a poignant note: “Let this be the Indian donation to Kashmir.”

MEETS MINISTERS: Meanwhile, Mr Kasuri also met on Saturday Foreign Minister of France, Philippe Douste-Blazy, Minister for Development of Sweden, Carin Jamtin, Vice Foreign Minister of China, Wu Dawei, Japanese Senior Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, Yasuhisa Shiozaki, and Foreign Minister of Morocco, Mohammad Benaissa.