Pakistan-India summit set for mid July

Foreign minister Abdul Sattar says Pakistan won't break the moratorium on nuclear testing

WASHINGTON -- Pakistani foreign minister Abdul Sattar says a July summit between Pakistani and Indian leaders will be a "moment of hope" in relations between the arch-rivals. Speaking after a meeting with U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell, the minister also said Pakistan would not break a moratorium on nuclear testing.

Pakistan announced Tuesday that its military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, would visit India from July 14 to 16 for the first summit talks between the neighboring states, which are at odds over the territory of Kashmir, in more than two years.

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Speaking after a meeting with U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell in Washington Tuesday, Sattar said: "We hope that the two leaders will be forward-looking ... and try to identify a direction in which that will lead us to a solution acceptable to the Kashmiri people."

Powell expressed his support for the summit, telling reporters: "Any time leaders of two great countries get together to discuss issues of enormous complication, it's got to be a good thing." The minister also told Powell that Pakistan would not be the one to break a moratorium on nuclear testing.

"We talked also about nuclear issues, and I have informed the secretary of state that Pakistan will maintain the moratorium on further tests, that Pakistan will not be the first country to resume testing in the future," Sattar said.

Appeal for sanctions to be lifted

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The two countries sent shock waves around the world when they set off nuclear tests three years ago.

Sattar has appealed to the United States to lift economic sanctions imposed on both Pakistan and India for the tests.

"We talked about sanctions, and we talked about how one gets through the process of eventually lifting sanctions," Powell told reporters. The administration is expected to lift the sanctions on India soon, but similar action for Pakistan, while under consideration, is less certain.

The punishment imposed on the two nations included bans on foreign assistance, munitions sales and licenses.

Election plans 'encouraging'

Powell said he was "very encouraged" by the report that Sattar gave him about preparations being made for an election next year.

Musharraf seized power in October 1999 in a bloodless coup.

He has promised to restore civilian rule when a mandate given to him by the supreme court expires in October 2002.

"It's very, very important to continue moving toward open elections, clean elections, next year. The secretary made that quite clear," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

Sattar met Powell for 90 minutes, hoping to reverse the decline in Pakistani influence in Washington compared with the Cold War-era partnership between the two countries.

Support for Taliban an issue

Taliban links are a source of tension

U.S. relations with Pakistan have been buffeted on a number of fronts, including the close ties Pakistan maintains with the Taliban militia in Afghanistan, which harbors terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden, who is wanted in the bombing of two U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998.

Powell indicated he was satisfied with the meeting. "There was no issue we could not discuss in a spirit of openness and candor, reflecting the great respect that we have for Pakistan," he said.

Boucher was asked about the nature of the discussion between Powell and Sattar on Pakistan's support for the Taliban.

"The secretary made quite clear that the relationship with the Taliban was a matter of great importance to the United States," Boucher said.

Afghanistan is under U.N. Security Council sanctions because of its harboring of terrorists.

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.