The moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference on Sunday said the slow pace of the dialogue process between India and Pakistan had cast doubts about the sincerity of the whole exercise.

"The dialogue process has become so slow that it has started creating doubts among various quarters about the sincerity of the peace process," top Hurriyat leaders told a five-member delegation of the European Union in Srinagar [Images].

Interacting with the delegation, the amalgam sought intervention of the European Union for early resolution of the Kashmir issue.

"We hope the EU will pay special attention towards early resolution of the Kashmir issue through the dialogue process," Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, chairman of the moderate faction, and senior leader Prof Abdul Gani Bhat told the delegation.

The EU delegation, led by Portugese envoy Luis Fillipe Castro Mendes, arrived in Srinagar on Saturday on a three-day study tour.

It also met National Conference President Omar Abdullah.

"The need of the hour is to carry forward the dialogue process with more thrust to make it meaningful and result-oriented," Mirwaiz and Bhat told the delegation.

On assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir [Images] slated for next year, the Hurriyat leaders said: "Elections have taken place in the past but have failed to resolve the Kashmir issue."

The leaders said they fully supported Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf [Images] four-point formula on resolving the Kashmir issue.

To a query by the delegation about non-participation of the Hurriyat in the roundtable conference convened by the Centre, the amalgam leaders said the roundtable was, in fact, aimed at 'hurting the soul of the peace process.'

"Nothing could have been achieved by participating in the conference. No agenda for resolution of the Kashmir issue has been set at the roundtable," the Hurriyat leaders said.

"We support a meaningful dialogue. Hurting the soul of the peace process will not be acceptable to us," they said.