ISLAMABAD, Oct 8: President General Pervez Musharraf on Monday once again invited Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to visit Pakistan for resuming the peace process and resolving all contentious issues between the two neighbouring countries, a senior government official told Dawn .

“President Pervez Musharraf made a telephone call to the Indian prime minister this evening and asked him to carry forward the Agra process through resumption of dialogue for resolving the issues that were hindering the normalization of relations between India and Pakistan,” the official said.

“I can confirm that the call was made by the president and it was a sincere attempt to resolve all the outstanding differences with the neighbouring country,” he said.

The official said that General Musharraf urged the Indian prime minister to resolve all those issues which were the root cause of tension and intolerance in the world in general and South Asia in particular.

In this context, the official said, the president also referred to the outstanding issue of Kashmir.

“The president emphasized that the core issue of Kashmir needed to be addressed too in the interest of peace, security and progress of this region.”

The official said that General Musharraf condoled with the Indian prime minister over the loss of civilian lives in the recent suicide bomb attack in Srinagar.

The president assured the Indian prime minister that Pakistan was opposed to all forms of terrorism, he said.

He also told Mr Vajpayee that Pakistan, being part of the international coalition against terrorism, could not condone such acts.

It may be mentioned that during his news conference earlier in the day, General Musharraf had openly condemned the suicide bomb blast in Srinagar and said that Pakistan could in no way support such kind of terrorism that targeted the civilian population.