NEW YORK, Sept 15: President Pervez Musharraf on Thursday dispelled the impression that his talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had failed, but acknowledged that it involved ‘complex and difficult issues’ that could not be resolved in ‘two days’.

“There is a commitment and a resolve to the settlement of disputes, which was also displayed last night,” the president told a news conference at the UN Headquarters.

Referring to Prime Minister Singh’s speech in the UN General Assembly in which he accused Pakistan of continuing to allow cross-border terrorism in occupied Kashmir, the president said: “There are differences of definition: some also call it freedom struggle. I do not want (to) get into these definitions, but we do need to work together to remove violence.”

He said people in Kashmir faced two forms of violence: one that is committed against the people and the other caused by cross-border terrorism, and India and Pakistan needed to try to end all such things.

The president said that Pakistan had never changed its position on Kashmir and added that there was a need to resolve the dispute on the basis of UN resolutions.

“I have been saying that we are flexible on this issue,” he said.

“Do not restrict yourself to the discussion because you do not really know what we discussed,” said the president when a reporter suggested that his talks with Mr Singh had failed.

Gen Musharraf, who is scheduled to meet a delegation from occupied Kashmir in New York later this week, said that India’s acceptance of the Hurriyat leaders as representatives of the people of Kashmir showed that the peace process was moving ahead.

“India never recognized the APHC. Now they allowed them to visit Pakistan and meet me. The Indian prime minister also has met APHC leaders. Is this not moving forward?” said Mr Musharraf while citing the Kashmir bus service as another sign of progress in talks.

The president said he and the Indian prime minister had discussed “very sensitive issues”, but he was “not prepared to discuss those issues in public.”

The president was asked about his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and recent contacts between Israel and Pakistan. “What next step? We will come to the next step when Israel takes the next step after Gaza,” he said when an Israeli reporter asked what next step he would take to improve relations with the Jewish state.

He said until recently Israel was a taboo in Pakistan but “now we are talking to them.” Pakistan would like Israel to take steps towards the creation of a Palestinian state and only then it could move towards normalization of relations, he added.

The president gave a detailed answer when a reporter referred to his remarks published in the Washington Post in which he was quoted as saying that some women used the rape issue to get visas to visit Western countries.

“These were not my words. I was quoting somebody else, but it is also true that the issue is used to defame Pakistan,” he said.

He then quoted from several Indian news reports showing that the rape was as common in India as in any other country, but “no Indian victim is ever invited to NY to talk about her ordeal.”

Gen Musharraf said he was “all for women rights” and was even willing to arrange an international conference on this issue but the issue should not be used to malign only Pakistan.

He said Pakistan and India were going ahead with the gas pipeline project with Iran and Pakistan was also holding bilateral negotiations for importing oil and gas from Iran.

He said Pakistan was against nuclear proliferation and believed that Iran faced no such threat that could justify the possession of nuclear weapons. “Besides, Iran has never said it is making nuclear weapons,” he added.

DR QADEER: President Musharraf said Pakistan would not allow any foreigner to interview nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan about his proliferation activities.

“We are not allowing that,” he said firmly in reply to a question.

“We are more capable of interrogating than others and we have no intention of hiding the facts; we have done both,” he emphasized.