Musharraf "very hopeful" Kashmir issue will be resolved

KUALA LUMPUR, Monday (AFP) Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf said Monday he was very hopeful that the decades-old Kashmir dispute with India can be resolved.

"I am very hopeful. The most important thing is for the leadership to have the will to reach a conclusion and I see that at this moment the leadership does have the desire and the will," he told reporters on a stopover en route to Australia.

"Therefore I am optimistic that it will be resolved in a certain time frame," he said, according to the national Bernama news agency.

Musharraf said he would "love to go" to Indian-held Kashmir but that the time was not right to propose a visit. "Let's see how things develop," he added.

Musharraf said Pakistan and India were negotiating to withdraw troops from the Himalayan glacier of Siachen, the world's highest battlefield, where more soldiers have died from altitude, sub-zero temperatures and accidents than enemy action.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who travelled to the remote region north of Kashmir on Sunday, called for the glacier to be turned into a "peace mountain."

"The issue is redeployment and withdrawal of forces from eyeball-to-eyeball contact," Musharraf said. "It needs negotiating what position we will relocate our forces. That is going on, and I am sure we will reach a conclusion."

The Pakistani leader also defended the decision to deport top Al-Qaeda operative Abu Faraj al-Libbi to the United States after his arrest in May, saying it was an important move for the international fight on terror.

"If you can do much more to get to the roots of Al-Qaeda, to apprehend more people around the world through the interrogation of this one man, I think that is more important than trying him (in Pakistan)," he said.

"Trying him will come later and we'll think about that later," he said of the man who allegedly masterminded two assassination attempts against him in December 2003.

"Other than the charges against him ... what is more important is to corroborate all the intelligence and information we get from arresting or apprehending other terrorists."

There were hopes that Al-Libbi's capture would help in the hunt for Al-Qaeda supremo Osama bin Laden, but Musharraf has reportedly said that the arrest failed to yield any clues to his whereabouts.

During his inaugural visit to Australia, Musharraf is due to sign an agreement to cooperate on counter terrorism. The tour also includes a visit to neighbouring New Zealand.