The much-touted Kashmir Peace Conference looked set to fizzle out on Wednesday night with neither Indian government representatives nor leaders of the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference taking part in the two-day meeting in Washington, DC.

Organizers confirmed that none of the Hurriyat leaders, including Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Yasin Malik and Professor Abdul Gani Bhat, were expected to attend the meeting. Indian Ambassador Lalit Mansingh has already said he would  stay away from the conference.

Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, president of the Kashmiri American Council, one of the Conference's organisers, said Hurriyat
leaders could not attend because they did not get travel documents. "They were all set to attend the conference, but they had restrictions on travel outside India," he told rediff.com "They were not given permission."

But Fai, who is organizing the two-day conference in conjunction with the San Francisco-based Association for Humanitarian Lawyers, tried to put up a brave front, saying even though the Hurriyat leaders could not attend, their American representatives would speak at the meeting. "I don't think the viewpoints of the Kashmiri people are going to be sidelined in this conference," he said.

He said Rajmohan Gandhi and Subramanian Swamy will attend the conference. Gandhi, who is a grandson of both Mahatma Gandhi and C Rajagopalchari, is director of the Gandhi Peace Institute. He will address the conference on Thursday, as a member of the panel on 'Kashmir: Regional and International dimensions.' The other two members of the panel are Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan, former prime minister of Pakistan occupied Kashmir, and Ashraf Jahangir Qazi, Pakistan's ambassador to the United States.

Although Swamy is in the US, it was not clear on Wednesday night if he would attend the conference.

Mansingh earlier told rediff.com that there was no question of him taking part in the conference. One could make out by looking at the names of the speakers that the organizers have an agenda, he had said.

But Fai denied that the conference aimed at trying to do anything more than creating a forum for meaningful discussion between Indian, Pakistani and Hurriyat representatives.

"After Prime Minister Vajpayee said a couple of months ago that a solution to the Kashmir problem has to be found and Pakistan showed positive interest, we thought it is time to have an international conference where people can freely discuss issues and ideas," Fai said.

"We knew the meeting was not going to see agreements between all sides. After all, we cannot produce a blueprint for
solution of the problem overnight," he said. "But we believed it was important to have such a dialogue, especially at this
juncture."

Fai said he was surprised that Mansingh had decided to stay away from the conference. He claimed his contact, who he did not identify by name, at the embassy gave him the impression that Indian officials were very excited about the conference.

"Maybe they are apprehensive -- India has always been apprehensive of the international dimension of the Kashmir issue," Fai claimed.

"How can you expect America to stop cross-border terrorism if you do not take Washington's help?" he asked. "We all want American help, but the fact is that when someone else takes the initiative, New Delhi does not like it."

The two US lawmakers, who are scheduled to inaugurate the conference, 'Beyond the Blame Game: Finding Common Grounds for Peace and Justice in Kashmir,' are four-term Senator Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, and four-term Representative Joseph Pitts, a Pennsylvania Republican. Both men have been supporters of the Kashmiri American Council for a long time.