NEW DELHI, May 25: As Indian and Pakistani officials toiled on Thursday to find common ground on yet another elusive issue — the Sir Creek dispute — Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he was waiting for Islamabad’s response to a clutch of peace proposals.

He did not identify the proposals but did say that a treaty of peace, security and friendship with Pakistan was a key element in his peace vision for both.

Dr Singh, who wound up two days of discussions with pro-India Kashmiris at a controversial roundtable meeting in Srinagar, also said he was ready to withdraw troops from the disputed Himalayan region but only after terrorist violence first abated there. Resistance leaders had boycotted the talks.

There were two dimensions to the problems of Jammu and Kashmir, the prime minister said. These are Delhi-Srinagar relationship and Delhi-Islamabad ties.

“I have said repeatedly to President Musharraf and the people of Pakistan that we are sincerely committed to peace and development in this region. Our government is committed to resolving all outstanding issues with Pakistan, including the issue of Jammu & Kashmir. There is also realisation that terrorism is an enemy of civilised societies.

Normalisation of relations between India and Pakistan will open up enormous opportunities for an accelerated rate of economic growth. “We must encourage people-to-people contacts between both sides,” he said.

“The vision that guides us is that the destinies of our peoples are interlinked,” the prime minister said at the end of his two-day visit to Srinagar. “We are sincerely committed to the prosperity, unity, development and well-being of Pakistan. We want all the people of South Asia to live a life of dignity and self-respect. When our neighbours live in peace, we live in peace.”

He said the peace process with Pakistan has generated high expectations and he was glad that this process has received demonstrable public support. “We are awaiting Pakistan’s response on some concrete suggestions which we have made,” Dr Singh said.

“In order to move forward, we need to move ahead step by step. We must have the courage to see each other as supporting the other for the realization of a better tomorrow for all the people of India and Pakistan,” he said.

As he spoke in Srinagar, officials of India and Pakistan in Delhi grappled with differences on demarcation of boundary in the marshy Sir Creek area in the Rann of Kutch.

Sources said though much ground work has been done to smoothen a passage for an accord, “differences persist on the boundary definition”.