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Musharraf claims infiltration didn't figure in talks with Bush

K J M Varma in Islamabad

While the United States said it has 'pushed' Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf 'hard' to stop cross-border infiltration, the Pakistani military ruler on Saturday claimed that the issue did not figure at all in his talks with President George W Bush in New York.

"They believe our words and US has not talked about the issue of infiltration during this visit as claimed by the Indian National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra," Musharraf said in New York before leaving for home, according to Pakistan's official news agency APP.

American officials, after Bush-Musharraf talks on Thursday, had said, "The [US] president pushed the Pakistanis hard on the question of infiltration across the Line of Control."

"We hope that an end to infiltration will create the atmosphere that would lead to resumption of dialogue between the two countries," the officials had said.

Mishra said on Friday that the US had given a very 'hard message' to Musharraf to stop infiltration and sponsoring violence in Jammu and Kashmir.

Musharraf claimed that the US leadership understands the Pakistan position on the issue of cross-border infiltration across the Line of Control and there was no 'area of disagreement' between the two countries.

Reacting to the speech of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the UN accusing Pakistan of nuclear blackmail, he said the Indian argument was 'illogical'.

Complete Coverage: Vajpayee's US Visit

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