ISLAMABAD, Nov 22: Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Tuesday appreciated the progress that Pakistan and India had made in their composite dialogue over the past three-four years and expressed the hope that the two countries would be able to resolve all issues between them, including the Kashmir dispute, through mutual understanding.

Addressing a news conference with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz after both had held bilateral talks, Mr Howard said his country had contributed $50 million to the quake relief fund and added that 160 Australian volunteers were already in Pakistan to provide humanitarian services for three months.

In reply to a question about giving the right of self-determination to the people of occupied Kashmir, he said Islamabad and New Delhi were engaged in negotiations on all issues and hopefully they would be able to find a viable solution to them.

He said Australia would continue to support India and Pakistan in their dialogue process, but keep itself away from interfering in the internal affairs of any country.

Mr Howard noted that former Indian premier Atal Bihari Vajpayee had played a pivotal role in the resumption of dialogue with Pakistan and now Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was working closely with the Pakistani leadership.

Earlier, Prime Minister Aziz said that Australia had been playing a major role in the world’s political and economic affairs, including the war on terrorism.

He ruled out the possibility of extremist organizations’ involvement in any terrorism-linked activity while working as relief workers.

AGREEMENTS: The Pakistani and Australian officials signed six agreements, including two protocols between the private sectors, as both premiers looked on and applauded after every exchange of protocol documents.

Mr Howard on the occasion said that he had had extensive talks with his Pakistani counterpart on all matters of mutual concern, including fight against terrorism.

He said he believed that the Muslims and Christians had potential to work with each other for world peace.

Answering a question whether Australia and Pakistan had reached the stage to sign the Free Trade Agreement (FTA), Mr Howard said both countries were engaged with each other on expansion of trade but “it was premature to enter into FTA at this moment”.

In reply to an Australian reporter’s question, Mr Aziz said seminaries in Pakistan were doing a good job of educating about 1 per cent of the population. He said the government was trying to modernize the seminaries and bring them to the mainstream education system.

The government, he stressed, was encouraging the seminaries in their job of training and teaching pupils and it was also overseeing that no one was involved in creating conditions for promoting terrorism.

The prime minister said that Australia had offered cooperation in several areas, including economic, trade and investment. He said that apart from minerals, oil and some other areas, there was great potential for Australian private sector’s investment in Pakistan.

The agreements signed pertain to the agriculture linkage programme, scholarships for Pakistani students, gas sale/purchase between the Sui Southern Gas Company and BHP of Australia and award of copper extraction licence by the government of Balochistan to M/s Tehyan, an Australian company.

The two sides also signed memoranda of understanding on cooperation to combat international terrorism, agriculture and exchange of information.