GENEVA, Jan 14: The United States could play a key role in allaying Pakistan's fears about India by getting involved in a solution to the Kashmir dispute, a senior Pakistani diplomat said on Friday.

Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva Zamir Akram said attempts by India and Pakistan to negotiate a settlement were derailed after 2006 by 'extremist' groups in each country.

“Unfortunately the momentum has been lost,” he told journalists.

When asked what single short-term gesture could help allay Pakistan's concerns about the strategic intentions of its neighbour, Mr Akram said: “Something that Mr Obama promised when he was a candidate for president but abandoned when he became president, that is, facilitate the solution to the

Kashmir dispute.”

“That's the gesture that the administration itself said it wanted to take and they should follow up on it,” he added.

Mr Akram suggested that the West had been too intent on securing relations with its ally India to forge a bulwark against China – an ally of Pakistan – in Asia.

He pointed out that Pakistan's concerns about its bigger neighbour stretched from nuclear weapons to energy supply, a strategic build-up in the region, and a fear of being surrounded to the west and east by neighbours with which it had tensions, Afghanistan and India.

The ambassador said that Pakistan must be part of attempts to forge a political solution in Afghanistan rather than simply be urged to kill extremists on its territory.

His comments came about a month after Mr Obama said that Pakistan must step up its attempts to root out “terrorist safe havens” within its borders.

Mr Akram rejected the reliance on military options.

“What you are asking us to do is to pull your chestnuts out of the fire and be the bad guys. So we kill them while you talk to them,” he told journalists.

Some western officials and military leaders have suggested a deal with moderate Taliban in Afghanistan while the military offensive there continues.

Mr Akram underlined that the Taliban were part of native Pashtun tribes in the region and simply killing leaders in Pakistan's remote western frontier areas was not viable “because we have to live with these people in the future”. “It is absolutely essential for us that we be part of this approach, that is where you bring a political solution to Afghanistan and not be part of only a military approach,” he added. “That's where the crux is.”

Pakistan said earlier this month that it had agreed with a visiting delegation of Afghan officials charged with trying to broker peace with the Taliban to hold a peace 'jirga' between the two countries.

The visit was regarded as the beginning of a new phase in Kabul's attempts to woo the Taliban to negotiate peace after nine years of war in Afghanistan.—AFP