Indo-Pak: US for a role, PM says no talks till terror ends

Singh asserted that India wants to engage with Pakistan to resolve all outstanding issues and was "not afraid" of discussing Kashmir.Obama and Singh discussed the India-Pakistan ties and other range of issues covering bilateral and global matters and announced a number of new initiatives, including cooperation in homeland security, removal of Indian entities from the US sanctions list and setting up of a research centre in India in the civil nuclear field.

Singh welcomed the US move to end export control on dual-use technology to India and support for its membership of multilateral groupings in the nuclear field, like the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

He allayed America's fears over outsourcing, saying India was "not in the business of stealing jobs" but cooperation in the economic field would create a win-win situation for both teh countries.

After the 75-minute meeting, Obama told a joint press conference that he had discussed situation in the region, including India-Pakistan relations with Singh."Kashmir is a longstanding dispute between India and Pakistan. I believe both Pakistan and India have interest in reducing tensions between the two countries," said the US President who is on his maiden visit here.

Emphasising that the US "cannot impose" solution to this problem, he said he had "indicated to Prime Minister Singh that we are happy to play any role the parties think is appropriate to reducing these tensions that is in interest of the region, the two countries and the United States."

Hoping that "coversations" between India and Pakistan would start over the "next several months and years", Obama said the dialogue may not start on that "particular flash point" but other issues like confidence-building measures to enable the two countries to focus on range of their challenges and opportunities.

Singh, on his part, asserted that India was committed to engaging with Pakistan and resolve all outstanding issues, "including the word-K (reference to Kashmir). We are not afraid of that.

"But it is our request is that you cannot simultaneously be talking and at the same time the terror machine (in Pakistan) is active as ever before. Once Pakistan moves away from terror-induced coercion, we will be very happy to engage productively with Pakistan to resolve all outstanding issues."

In his opening remarks, Obama said the two leaders agreed on the need for all nations in the region to take steps that there are no safe havens for terrorists, an apparent reference to Pakistan