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ISLAMABAD, Tuesday (AFP) Pakistani Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali told Hindi-language radio listeners Monday that protracted peace moves with India would pick up speed once suspended airlinks are resumed.

"At the moment this process is on the bus, and the bus moves slowly. When the planes would begin to run and fly, then I hope that the things would move with that speed," Jamali told the BBC's Hindi program in a live link-up with listeners.

"At the moment let the bus move."

Since Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajapayee's landmark peace offer on April 18, New Delhi and Islamabad have reappointed ambassadors after a 12-month absence and resumed a cross-border bus service.

But train and air transport links remain suspended, and direct talks between the fractious neighbours' leaders remain a long way off.

The transport ties were cut after allegedly Pakistan-backed militants stormed the Indian parliament killing nine people in December 2001. Jamali told the radio program that a bus service linking the Pakistan- and Indian-held zones of Kashmir, the disputed region at the center of their tensions since partition in 1947, also "could be possible."

He told questioners, who phoned in to the radio show from around the world, that Pakistan's army fully backed reconciliation efforts with India. The nuclear-ready neighbours have already fought three wars since the subcontinent was divided on independence from Britain 56 years ago.

"I feel that even the army wants peace in the region. I have the backing to take the peace process forward, and we are working together on this," Jamali said.

He also praised India's commitment to attending a summit of South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in the Pakistani capital in January, when observers expect Vajpayee and Jamali to meet.

But he was optimistic that talks could take place before the SAARC meet.

"There are many international forums, I feel that at any of these forums where we come across each other, then we would definitely meet." The Pakistani leader said the timing of an earlier meeting was up to Vajpayee.

"When Mr Vajpayee wants, I am ready to meet him....He is the elderly person, and elders want to meet the youngers. It is the elders who order and it is for the youngsters to obey."

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