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Pakistan's approach towards India will lead nowhere: Advani

"I don't think it is President [Pervez] Musharraf who is the problem. He can solve the problems. Anyone can if only it is realised that this approach is not going to lead either country anywhere," Advani, who was on an official visit to the United Kingdom, told BBC.

Asked if New Delhi had any fresh initiative to ease Indo-Pak tension, he said, "Not at the moment."

Advani said when he first met Musharraf, he was "very optimistic because I felt that here was a person, who despite being in the army, might be able to respond to what I say".

Advani recollected having told Musharraf that he [the Pakistani president] was born in Delhi and was visiting it for the first time in 53 years at the time of last year's Agra Summit. "I was born in Karachi and I have visited Karachi only once in 53 years... Lets resolve to change the situation," he told Musharraf.

Advani said he was also encouraged at the time of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's bus ride to Lahore in 1999 and thought something would come out of it.

On whether he was still encouraged, he said, "Not now."

"Today, the main problem is Pakistan's resort to cross-border terrorism after its failure to achieve its objectives through open wars [with India]," the deputy prime minister said.

Asked whether the two nuclear-armed countries were on the brink of war twice this year, he said, "We have not talked of war. It was only the attack on Indian Parliament that really created a sense of outrage in the whole country and as a result of which certain steps were taken. But we did not go beyond a point."

To a question that he was not talking peace either, Advani said, "There is no point in talking peace when innocents are being killed day after day."

Observing that the international community, particularly the US and Britain, had made Pakistan change its attitude somewhat, he said he would be "very happy" if in that process, the two countries were able to find a solution to Kashmir issue.

Queried about India's nuclear doctrine, he said, "We do not think it terms of a nuclear war. We have developed a nuclear deterrent and we have a doctrine."

Terrorism Strikes in Jammu and Kashmir: The complete coverage

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