KATHMANDU, Jan 6: President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee met for a few minutes in Kathmandu on Sunday for talks that were believed to set the stage for a revived peace process between India and Pakistan.

Gen Musharraf addressed a news conference immediately after the brief meeting with Vajpayee, which happened within minutes of the conclusion of the Saarc summit.

At the outset, Gen Musharraf spelt out an agenda that was bereft of any acrimony and he described the Indian prime minister as a friend whose friendship he wanted to cherish for a long time.

“But we need to see the complexity of the circumstances facing India and Pakistan,” he appealed before setting out two urgent tasks the two had to carry out. “First we must remove the dangerous tensions facing India and Pakistan,” he said, referring to the military build-up between the two that both sides have described as threatening.

“In the next stage we have to settle all disputes between us,” he said. Gen Musharraf said he would come down hard on any group or individual from Pakistan if he were found to have been involved in the terrorist attack on Indian parliament on Dec 13.

But he said India had not given him any proof about the suspects although he had personally given “my guarantee” to act against whoever was found guilty. Pakistan was confronted with the challenge of terrorism too against which he was already acting hard.

But he warned that the problem of terrorism should not be confused with the problem of Kashmir. “The trouble starts when we lump the problems together.”

In deference to India’s worry at being seen to have spoken to the Pakistani leadership despite taking a tough public stance against such talks, Gen Musharraf stressed every time he was asked that the meeting with Vajpayee was an informal one. He said the foreign ministers of the two countries had held longer meeting.

Pakistani officials said Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar and Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh had met for about 90 minutes on Saturday to apparently thrash out the prospects for a Musharraf-Vajpayee rendezvous on Sunday. Gen Musharraf declined to say what was discussed between the foreign ministers but hinted that they had not been discussing the weather.

He declined to be drawn into a discussion on Vajpayee’s list of accusations he read out against the Pakistani leader at the Saarc meeting on Saturday. “If I react to all the statements being showered on me by India, that will only increase the tension,” he said. “And there is no need for this kind of rhetoric,” he added.

Then in a characteristically disarming comment which drew smiles and laughter from the global media inevitably glued to his every word, Gen Musharraf remarked: “I have decided to exercise restraint although as a soldier, at times, it becomes very difficult for me.”

He confirmed that the United States was in constant touch with both sides but refused to describe that as pressure tactics. “If the United States has been telling us to defuse tensions and to hold talks, I don’t think it’s pressure tactics,” he said.

Describing his meeting with Vajpayee as an informal one, Gen Musharraf said: “Yes, we were there in one room. Others were also there. There was no one-on-one meeting.”

Asked if the foreign ministers had met alone, he parried the question and said: “Some waiters were there serving tea.”

Agencies add: President Musharraf said both Pakistan and India realize the urgency of having formal contacts between them in view of the current dangerous situation.

He said during the Saarc summit leaders of the two countries had been having an informal interaction and talked about reduction of tension.

Musharraf hoped some formal interaction between the two countries will take place very soon.