DAVOS, Jan 23: President Pervez Musharraf said on Friday that talks with India over the long-disputed Kashmir region would progress only if both sides were bold.

"The relationship will progress only if we show sincerity and resolve and also, may I say, boldness," Gen Musharraf told a press conference at the World Economic Forum here.

He said the foreign offices of India and Pakistan were in contact and that he expected the talks to begin in February, first only at a relatively low level.

Earlier, in a CNN interview, he discussed various issues including that of suspected transfer of nuclear technology. He said it appeared some Pakistani scientists had sold nuclear secrets abroad, but reiterated Islamabad's position that there had been no official involvement.

Gen Musharraf said the investigation, launched in November, would be completed in "a few weeks". Asked the likely outcome, he replied: "Well, I would not like to predict, but it appears that some individuals, as I said, were involved for personal financial gain."

He said similar allegations had been made against European individuals and countries, "so it is not Pakistan alone". And he stressed: "There is no such evidence that any government personality or military personality was involved in this at all."

Asked about reports that Pakistani scientists had also transferred technology to Libya and North Korea, he replied: "I am not denying anything because we are investigating; we have sent teams to Libya, we have sent teams to Iran and we are in contact with the IAEA (the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency). We are collecting all the data..."

He vowed "stern action" against violators. "There is nothing that we want to hide, we want to be very up and clear about it that we will move against anybody who proliferated," he said. Pakistan would move against any violator "because they are enemies of the state", he said.

Al Qaeda: At the press conference, Gen Musharraf said that Al Qaeda was "on the run" in Pakistan and guessed that Osama bin Laden was in hiding somewhere around the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

However, in response to a question, he rejected the possibility of United States forces being allowed into the border region to look for "terrorists", saying that Pakistan had all the troops, equipment and intelligence it needed for the job.

He said that Al Qaeda terrorist network might have ordered two assassination attempts which he narrowly escaped last month. "We have rounded up all the people directly involved, but the people who are behind that, yes we are reasonably sure that it is Al Qaeda," he told CNN.

President Musharraf escaped by a matter of seconds an explosion on a bridge which his motorcade travelled over on Dec 14, and a twin suicide bomb attack on the Christmas Day.

"We haven't yet got to the top of identifying the person who has issued the order but we know there are linkages that may be the idea came from the Al Qaeda," the president said. "But on the other side who has executed it and whether there's an organization behind the executors or some individual extremists are involved, that is still to be clarified."

Afghan charge:When asked about allegations by Afghan leaders that Pakistan was not doing enough, he termed these "unfortunate". He said no leader in the US had said that but unfortunately these statements were coming from the Afghan leadership.

He said: "It is a terrible thing to accuse each other. We are fighting the same enemy - the Taliban and their abettors and by accusing each other we are weakening our positions.

"Al Qaeda operatives are on both sides of border... more in Afghanistan than in Pakistan. "Let everybody stop bad mouthing Pakistan. We are the only country that has done the most against Taliban. The world knows it and should know it."

To a question about the whereabouts of a Pakistani journalist arrested with French journalists for a concocted documentary about Taliban, he said: "I hold him in the poorest of opinion. He was contriving with the French journalists to concoct a movie showing Pakistan in bad light."

"He does not deserve any sympathy as he was trying to bring harm to my country." He however added that he would try to find out about him. Madressah reforms: He fended off criticism that his government had failed to reform Madressahs blamed for inculcating religious extremism and inciting militancy.

He acknowledged that progress had been slow on a pledge he made two years ago to register the religious schools, control their funding and introduce the state curriculum. But he told the Forum here that the policy remained firmly in place to reform the schools that provide board, lodging and religious instruction to as many as 1.5 million students.

"We are in the process of doing it," Musharraf said. "Yes, I agree it is moving slowly, but we haven't given it up. "It's not that we have given it up because there are some compulsions. There are no compulsions on us," he said, apparently referring to pressure from religious parties.

Gen Musharraf said madressah reform had been slowed by resource and organizational constraints, adding that only some of Pakistan's 6,000 to 7,000 madressahs were involved in extremism.

He said about 2,000 had been registered with the education ministry so far, but it was hard to find teachers and funding to teach newly introduced state curriculum subjects in the schools, many of which are in remote areas. "I'm very sure that in the coming years you will see movement, faster movement in this direction," he declared. -Agencies