NEW DELHI, Aug 13: India's main communist party, while shoring up India's ruling coalition United Progressive Alliance, has criticised Pakistani leaders for what it termed being too cozy with the United States , but it encouraged New Delhi to continue the dialogue with Islamabad.

In a periodic assessment of global and domestic politics, the central committee of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) said Gen Musharraf had removed former prime minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali to replace him with a more America- friendly successor.

The central committee had met between July 30 and August 1, but its report was made public only on Friday. It was significant that Pakistan's High Commissioner Aziz Ahmed Khan called on CPI- M's general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet on the same day. Mr Surjeet had recently attended an India-Pakistan Punjabi Forum meeting in Amrtisar.

"The choice of Shaukat Aziz is another indication of how dependent (Gen) Musharraf has become on the US," the party said in a detailed report, which also slammed the United States and Israel for wrecking peace in the Middle East.

"The removal of (prime minister) Jamali has renewed speculation that (President) Musharraf might not stick to his commitment to step down from the post of Army chief."

The CPI-M lauded the UPA's commitment in its common minimum programme (CMP) to improve ties with India's neighbours. "In foreign policy (the CMP) stated that the UPA government will pursue an independent foreign policy which seeks to promote multipolarity in world relations and oppose all attempts at unilateralism.

There is mention of improvement of relations with China, continuing the dialogue with Pakistan and support to the cause of the Palestinian people. "These are some of the measures which enabled the CPI-M and the Left to broadly endorse the CMP," the report said.