ISLAMABAD, July 27: Pakistan has again asserted that the process of composite dialogue between India and Pakistan requires a timeframe and that should be meaningful and result-oriented.

Foreign office spokesman Masood Khan explained at his weekly press briefing here on Tuesday some of the questions arising out of an official statement issued after a meeting between President General Pervez Musharraf with Indian foreign minister in Islamabad on July 23.

The spokesman said that against the background of discussions on Kashmir going on for more than half a century between the two South Asian neighbours, what the president was trying to say was that they should have a 'two-to-two' list, have clear objectives and "we do need" a timeframe for the dialogue. The point needed to be emphasized is that this should cause no resentment.

Mr Khan said the process of the composite dialogue, since it was agreed by the leadership of India and Pakistan in January this year, had so far maintained a satisfactory pace and the foreign ministers of the two countries were due to meet in Delhi in early September this year after having held meetings at the levels of foreign secretaries and senior officials.

But the resolution of the issue of Jammu and Kashmir which was the important, central and sensitive issue in the dialogue process, required "to be prioritized" as this was the challenging "important and sensitive issue," he said.

The spokesman said: "You cannot have a notion to go on having meetings with no end-result. This whole process has to be meaningful and result-oriented." He said: "We have to have time management on the Kashmir dispute to resolve it within a timeframe. It can't be open-ended discussion, time is finite and this discussion between Pakistan and India cannot go on for ever."

He said that during his talks with Indian External Minister K. Natwar Singh, the president had suggested that the process of dialogue between the two countries should reflect the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and it should get them 'some comfort'.

While everybody admitted that the ceasefire along the Line of Control since it was announced more than half a year ago had led to a reduction in so-called infiltration across the Line of Control, human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir must go down, the spokesman said.

Answering a question, the spokesman said the people of Kashmir at some point of time, as the composite dialogue proceeded, would have to be associated with it since they were a significant stake-holder in the Kashmir talks and "we have to ask them what they want".

He further said the people of Kashmir should have the satisfaction that they were also the part of the (composite dialogue) process and engagement in the CBM (confidence-building measures) process which had permeated (between the two countries) should also travel to Srinagar and other cities of occupied Kashmir.

Responding to a question regarding a project of laying an overland gas pipeline from Iran to Pakistan and extending to India, the spokesman expressed Pakistan's support for the proposed project and welcomed the discussions on this issue that Iranian foreign minister had held recently with his Indian counterpart in Delhi.

The spokesman said in reply to a question that a televised statement on the kidnapping of the Pakistani drivers was based on totally incorrect premises that it was because of Pakistan's decision to send troops to Iraq to suppress Iraqi insurgents.

He categorically declared that Pakistan had not sent nor has yet decided to send its troops to Iraq. However, the government had before it a request for Pakistani troops for the purposes of deployment for the security of the United Nations mission and UN officials. In dealing with the UN request Pakistan was watching the Iraqi security situation.

The spokesman sought to dispel an impression that the appointment of Pakistan's former ambassador to the UN was connected with Islamabad's likely response to the reported US request for Pakistani troops.

It was a personal decision of Ambassador Ashraf Jahangir Kazi who was proposed to be posted out to another ambassadorial post, to accept the UN assignment as the UN envoy to Iraq, he said.

Pakistan also had to keep the reaction of the neighbouring Islamic states in the region and also examine whether the dispatch of troops to Iraq would be helpful in any manner.

The spokesman denied having had any reports about kidnapping of Pakistan staff members in Afghanistan and said that he believed that two staff members and three security personnel of the mission were travelling between Herat and Kandhar.

He also said that about 400 Pakistanis detained in Afghanistan had been released and were now travelling back home. Out of about 60 to 65 Pakistanis detained in the US Gauntanamo bay detention centre, about 25 had been set free while most of the others might be freed soon.