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Bush warned Musharraf over infiltration

"We have a big stake in South Asia. We hope that an end to infiltration will create the atmosphere that would lead to a resumption of dialogue between the two countries," said the text of the briefing on the talks between the two leaders, made available on Friday.

When asked if Bush felt having made progress on reducing tensions between India and Pakistan, an administration official said, "I am not going to characterise the president's feelings. I would say that every time we bring out the importance of an issue, it lets the two sides [India and Pakistan] remember that we do think it is important that progress is achieved."

"You know this is a long, slow process... the president pushed the Pakistanis hard on the question of infiltration across the Line of Control," he said.

Bush noted that this was "basically the precursor... of setting the environment where you can make progress on the underlying issue", the officials added.

The president "also, right at the very top of the meeting with Musharraf, stressed how important is that Pakistanis follow through on their commitments to return to full democracy", he said.

The official said he would put this in the context of Bush's vision that a democratic, moderate and Islamic Pakistan could some day serve as a beacon for other Islamic states.

Asked what Bush said about the constitutional amendments Musharraf had announced and whether he spoke of penalties if the process of democratisation was reversed, he said: "I shall give you a more general quote than that, which is that basically the president said that adherence to democracy is key."

"If Pakistan is going to be a successful state, then democracy has to take roots. There wasn't any discussion of specific penalties. We are not going to bomb Pakistan if we are unsatisfied with their national assembly," he said.

He said Bush made it clear that "Pakistan will not succeed unless it goes down the road of democracy, true democracy, and that if it doesn't succeed, that would be bad for the entire world. He kept on stressing, we want to see you succeed, we have big stakes in this. If you don't adhere to democracy, we will all have trouble".

PTI

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