NEW DELHI, July 31: India set on Wednesday the return to democracy by Pakistan as a key condition to allow Islamabad to become a member of the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Regional Forum (ARF).

Analysts said the move appeared to rekindle a similar acrimony when India stalled a South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) summit on the same grounds only to become the first country later to recognize Gen Pervez Musharraf as Pakistan’s new constitutional head.

India eventually allowed the Saarc summit in Kathmandu to take place but not before inviting President Musharraf for summit talks in Agra with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, where the status of Pakistan’s proximity to democracy was not known to have worried the two sides much, analysts said.

News reports from Brunei quoted Indian Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal as saying that New Delhi would block any move to evolve a consensus required to accept Pakistan as a member of the 23-nation security group, a powerful club in which the United States has a major say, pressing particularly for a coalition against terrorism.

The Asean, host of the annual forum of countries with security interests in the region, sees the standoff between the nuclear-armed rivals as the biggest threat to peace in Asia.

Some Asean countries have said they would welcome Pakistan as a member of the forum, but cannot overcome Indian objections.

“There has to be a consensus,” Sibal told reporters after the two-day meeting began. “The consensus will have to include India’s viewpoint.”

“We will see if Pakistan becomes a democratic and moderate state and if Pakistan gives up its policy of using terrorism as an instrument of state policy,” Sibal said.

“Then Pakistan’s ambition to join this grouping or another grouping will be looked at in a certain light,” Sibal said. “It is not an issue at this ARF meeting.”

News reports said although the regional security meeting has been dominated by US efforts to sign an anti-terrorism treaty with Asean and a resumption of talks between the US and the two Koreas, the India-Pakistan standoff has nonetheless ranked high among foreign ministers’ concerns.

“Although there are signs of reduction of tension, there is still concern about it,” Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said. “We hope both sides will be able to resolve the issues and reduce the tension in the area.”

Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha said there was no need for the meeting to focus on the India-Pakistan conflict, but several countries raised it during the first full session.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell put the focus directly on Kashmir last week describing it as a key issue between the countries, which was of concern to the international community.

However, Sibal told journalists in Brunei after a 10-minute meeting that Powell had with External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, that the American official had stressed his remarks should be seen in the context of the subject being of international interest.

He quoted Powell as having said that his “international agenda” remark made in New Delhi on Sunday was not in reference to a solution (to Kashmir issue) which “you (India and Pakistan) will have to find yourselves,” PTI said.