Economic cooperation, cultural exchange and people-to-people contact between India and Pakistan can end the present atmosphere of distrust between the two countries, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has said.

In an interview to Turkish newspaper News, Vajpayee said dialogue was the only way to resolve Indo-Pak issues, including Jammu and Kashmir.

Vajpayee flays selective approach to terrorism

"But for any dialogue to be meaningful terrorism must end and the infrastructure promoting it has to be dismantled," he emphasised.

Vajpayee said India has been consistently extending the hand of friendship to Pakistan and 'I did so again in spite of the fact of continuing cross-border terrorism'.

On nuclear proliferation, he said, "India has consistently maintained a principled position. We have developed a nuclear deterrent in response to our security imperative. Our nuclear assets are firmly under civilian control."

"We have adopted a doctrine of no-first use of nuclear weapons. We believe that it is highly irresponsible to even contemplate the use of nuclear weapons as an instrument of war. Equally, India does not transfer nuclear weapons materials or technologies to any country," Vajpayee said.