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India says Pakistan ruler must change his attitude

MADRAS: India feels Pakistan's military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, must change his attitude towards New Delhi if ties are to improve, junior Foreign Minister Ajit Panja said on Thursday.

Panja told reporters in Madras that the general's attitude towards India had been "unbecoming of any administrator, a chief executive or otherwise".

"Yes, unless he changes his modus operandi," Panja said when asked whether India found Musharraf's regime a stumbling block in normalising ties with its South Asian neighbour and old rival.

This week, Musharraf told reporters in Karachi that Islamabad wanted a dialogue with India but that statements from New Delhi made it difficult to resume negotiations.

"They are unnecessarily increasing tensions and hysteria. There is rhetoric. I don't think there is a danger of war," the general said.

Panja's remarks came just hours after U.S. President Bill Clinton said in Washington that he was "profoundly concerned" about the discord between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan, and hoped to do something to ease it before leaving office.

Clinton, scheduled to visit India and Bangladesh in March, said he had not decided whether to make a stop in Pakistan, which has earned U.S. criticism for its October 1999 military coup.

Panja said uncertainty over the legitimacy of Musharraf's regime was also a cause for concern for India.

"We do not know whether it is a civil or military government. No martial law has been declared," Panja said.

"India cannot give any indication that it will support democratic governments being thrown out."

Washington has criticised the coup that ousted Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and demanded a timetable for the country's return to democracy.

Musharraf has urged Clinton to visit Pakistan, saying this could help bring peace to the region. Clinton's South Asia trip was originally scheduled in 1998 but was put off because of nuclear tests by India and Pakistan in May 1998 and when conflict erupted in Kashmir last year.

India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over the disputed Himalayan region. Last summer's conflict, pitting Pakistani-backed guerrillas against Indian troops, was described as the worst crisis between the two neighbours in 30 years.

Panja said India hoped to use Clinton's visit to deepen its dialogue with the United States and strengthen their mutual resolve to combat terrorism.

India accuses Pakistan of links to the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane in December.

"We are convinced that it is a terrorist state and must be declared a rogue state," Panja said when asked if India would press Clinton to declare Pakistan a "terrorist state".-Reuters