UNITED NATIONS, Feb 7: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Wednesday said that India and Pakistan must start talking to resolve their dispute over Kashmir and he offered the UN help to bring them together.

Mr Annan told a Security Council meeting that there was a “need not only for an immediate military de-escalation, but also for a sustained dialogue aimed at resolving this situation so that there will not be another crisis in a few weeks’, or a few months’ time.”

The UN chief, who briefed the Security Council on his trip to Asia last month, said he had offered his services to both South Asian nations to get talks started.

Mr Annan’s offer came a day after President Pervez Musharraf called for international mediation, saying one-on-one efforts had failed to resolve the Kashmir dispute.

Noting progress since the new interim authority assumed control of Afghanistan in December, Mr Annan told the Security Council that continued international support was needed to ensure the country’s short-term stability and future reconstruction and growth. The international community must rise to the challenge today, and then stay engaged for the long haul, Mr Annan said

The secretary-general said that security was the number one preoccupation of everyone he met during his trip to Afghanistan and that a second important concern was a need for the interim administration to have the resources to pay public servants. Without resources, Mr Annan warned, the administration would quickly lose credibility and would be unable to extend its authority elsewhere in the country, thereby undermining the chances of success of the longer-term peace process.