NEW DELHI, May 1: President General Pervez Musharraf, painted as an ogre by India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in recent state polls, won rare praise on Thursday from an important minister of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s cabinet who said he liked and trusted him.

Junior Foreign Minister Digvijay Singh acknowledged in a TV discussion on relations with Pakistan that General Musharraf had his limitations in checking terrorism.

Mr Singh, a member of Defence Minister George Fernandes’ Samata Party, was the minister-in-waiting for General Musharraf’s visit to New Delhi and Agra in July 2001.

Asked whether Gen Musharraf could be taken as a reliable leader with whom India could now do business, Mr Singh said: “As head of the country, he has the ability to stop cross-border terrorism” though not all terrorist outfits would be under his control.

Mr Singh said Gen Musharraf was very frank. “My impression is that whatever he said publicly, the Pakistan leader spoke in a similar vein privately. I like the man”.

He said Gen Musharraf could “not gather guts” to go in for tangible steps to take the dialogue from the Agra summit forward.

There has been considerable speculation in the Indian media about the reason why Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali and not President Musharraf had chosen to pick up the phone for an ice-breaking chat with Mr Vajpayee.