NEW DELHI, April 29: In an apparent damage control move the Indian government officially expressed the view on Tuesday that an invitation to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee by his Pakistan counterpart to visit Islamabad had not been rejected.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party had earlier in the day announced that Mr Vajpayee had not accepted Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali’s invitation to visit Islamabad.

At a news briefing, party spokesman V.K. Malhotra quoted Mr Vajpayee as saying “Pakistan ka nimantran sweekar nahin kiya” (I was invited to visit Pakistan by the prime minister of that country but I have not accepted it).

Mr Malhotra said the party was of the view that there should be no talks with Pakistan unless and until Islamabad stopped “aiding and abetting cross-border terrorism”.

However, late in the night the Press trust of India quoted a government spokesman as clarifying the BJP statement by saying that the issue had figured in a “very general way” between the two leaders and was not pursued further.

“The idea of Prime Minister Vajpayee visiting Pakistan or Prime Minister Jamali coming to India was mentioned by the latter in a very general way. The idea was not pursued further by either side during the conversation,” the PTI quoted an unidentified official as saying.

He said: “Therefore, the question of rejecting the invitation does not arise.”