ISLAMABAD, Jan 17: Pakistan on Monday refuted a claim made by New Delhi last week that the Indian-held Kashmir was a 'symbol' of its statehood founded on secularism , and observed that the territory was rather 'a symbol of tyrannical occupation and a land of oppressed people'.

Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan, responding to questions at his weekly press briefing, said occupied land and suppressed people did not provide a basis for Indian polity. India had kept its occupation through use of force and farcical elections which did not give legitimacy to the occupation.

"We have to talk about the Jammu and Kashmir dispute with each other, taking on board the Kashmiri people who are an important party to the dispute," the spokesman said, adding that India could not deny the existence of the Kashmir dispute which had been there for the last 57 years.

He said that the Kashmir dispute was an urgent and central issue in ongoing bilateral talks. It was, therefore, the substance which the two sides should try to resolve, instead of attempting to stray into deceptive issues, he maintained.

He recalled that President Pervez Musharraf had only recently reiterated that bilateralism should not be used as a vehicle to relegate the Kashmir issue to a secondary position and stressed that talks should be resulted-oriented.

In the same context, he pointed out that the president had emphasized that the Line of Control could not be the solution of the Kashmir dispute and that Pakistan remained adherent to the United Nations resolutions on Kashmir.

The spokesman rejected Indian External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh's assertion that cross-border infiltration from Pakistan had been taking place. In this regard, he referred to a statement by the Indian army chief who, taking it as a credit for his troops, had said on Sunday that infiltration was down to zero.

The spokesman said one did not know why Mr Natwar Singh had chosen the same time to make a contradictory statement. He said the fact was that every other day innocent Kashmiris were being killed by the Indian forces which, he added, had to be stopped.

About the composite dialogue, he agreed that the process needed to be accelerated and hoped that when the Indian foreign minister arrived in Pakistan next month he would hold talks with his Pakistani counterpart.

Asked what did Pakistan expect from an 'out-of-the-box solution' to which Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had frequently alluded for a Kashmir settlement, the spokesman said for Pakistan the out-of-box solution was that you identify and create necessary space for exploring a solution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.

He expressed the hope that during his visit Mr Natwar Singh would have 'very productive' talks in continuation of the dialogue process which should be sustained.

What Pakistan expected from the continuation of the talks was to get Delhi, Islamabad and Kashmiri political parties involved in the process to find a solution of the Kashmir dispute.

In reply to a question, the spokesman advocated Pakistan's request to the US authorities to allow purchase of some badly needed weapons, including F-16 aircraft, since India's huge military purchases had added to the existing asymmetry in conventional arms between the two countries. Pakistan's demand for some American arms was legitimate, he said.

About the Baglihar dam controversy, he said the outcome of the latest bilateral talks had hit a dead end. He said Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had already announced that Pakistan would refer the issue to the World Bank for mediation.

Mr Masood Khan said it would be very unfortunate if the talks on the Baglihar dam issue remained deadlocked, for that would cast a shadow on the whole process of composite dialogue.

He said it was possibly correct that India had secured an American loan to accelerate the completion of the Baglihar dam before the World Bank could intercede. Asked if either country could unilaterally abrogate the Indus Basin Treaty, the spokesman avoided giving a straight reply, saying they had not reached such a stage.

APP ADDS: When asked, the spokesman said Pakistan had not received any request from India for the extradition of 'Maulana (Masood) Azhar and others'.