rediff.com: Benazir regrets losing chance to make peace with India: AFP

Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto said in an interview published on Thursday that she had squandered chances to make peace with India by focussing solely on the Kashmir dispute.

"I missed the opportunity to make peace between India and Pakistan and I regret that," Bhutto told The Asian Age daily in San Francisco, where she was attending a women's leadership conference.

"In my second term as prime minister (1993-96) I squandered away an opportunity to build bridges... I held everything hostage to the Kashmir issue and I regret that."

"In my first term (1988-90) when the Pakistan People's Party showed the will to make peace, we got booted out. But in my second term, I did not move towards peace. I missed the chance," Bhutto said.

Bhutto also told the newspaper that she had advised US President Bill Clinton to include Pakistan -- despite the recent military coup -- on his South Asian tour next month when he comes to India and Bangladesh.

"I would rather not like the president to be photographed with a military dictator. Yet, as a Pakistani I hope he will help maintain a political balance in the region by visiting Pakistan," she said.

"It's the people of Pakistan who need to be considered. It is they who made huge sacrifices against the Soviets in Afghanistan and it is these sacrifices that must be honoured by Mr Clinton."

Bhutto also said that Pakistan had spent way too much time trying to match India's actions.

"Pakistan should give up the policy of doing what India does. India built a bomb; we went ahead and did that. India tested the bomb, we went ahead and tested ours."

She said she wanted Pakistan to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty which India has so far refused to do.

"We must not wait to see what India does. We should take an independent decision ... But the military dictatorship must not sign it, it must only be done by a democratic government."

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