Kashmir not the only summit issue: India

Leaders of India and Pakistan are due to meeting in the first summit between the two in more than two years

SRINAGAR, India -- India has said that Kashmir should not be the only issue at next week's summit with Pakistan, a stand likely to irk Pakistan, which insists that the dispute over the Himalayan territory is the "core issue" between them.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who won backing from opposition parties for his summit talks at a Monday meeting, said he expected to discuss cross-border terrorism, nuclear confidence building and trade at the summit.

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf said last week that if the summit in the Indian city of Agra "followed the hackneyed path" of discussing other issues before discussing Kashmir, he would be very disappointed.

Islamabad has said Musharraf would bring only a small summit team in order to underline his determination to focus on the dispute over Kashmir.

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Vajpayee said both countries needed to bring a fresh approach to the talks.

"Narrow and cliche-ridden approaches have not worked in the past. Nor has violence," he said.

Meanwhile, India threw open its heavily guarded borders for Pakistani citizens Monday, promising to ease travel rules, set up new visa offices and possibly reopen a centuries-old highway that was once the lifeline of the disputed province of Kashmir, the cause of two wars between the nuclear-capable rivals since 1947.

Goodwill gesture

The new visa regulations are expected to provide hope to thousands of families in both sides of the border, separated since the 1947 partition of the subcontinent by harsh travel restrictions.

The goodwill gesture comes just days before Musharraf travels to India for the summit.

Hours earlier, however, Jaswant Singh, India's foreign and defense minister, rejected a no-war pact with Pakistan, India's western neighbor, saying such a pact would not be meaningful until Pakistan ended its "proxy war" in Kashmir -- the term India uses for Pakistan's support for an Islamic insurgency in the mountain province.

Until now, Pakistani citizens traveling to India by road had to apply for visas in the capital Islamabad, and then travel through the main border post between the two countries at Attari, a border post in the Indian state of Punjab. It is 400 kilometers (250 miles) northwest of New Delhi.

Now, Pakistani citizens traveling by road will be able to get visas at the border post itself, and several new visa checkpoints will be opened over the next three months along the Line of Control, the disputed frontier in Kashmir, and in the desert state of Rajasthan, Foreign Ministry spokesman Nirupama Rao told reporters.

India and Pakistan have fought two wars since 1947

Rao said one of the new routes to open up could be a highway that meanders through the mountains from Srinagar, capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, to Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-held Kashmir. In 1947, the road was the lifeline of Kashmir, bringing salt, rations, rice, fuel and key supplies from what became Pakistan.

The reopening of the highway is also a demand of Kashmiri separatists, who, like hundreds of armed Islamic guerrillas, are demanding independence or a merger of Kashmir with Pakistan.

India accuses Pakistan of arming and funding an armed rebellion in the Himalayan province. Pakistan denies the charge but acknowledges political support for the guerrillas.

Opposition backing

Earlier on Monday, leaders of more than 20 political parties, including opposition groups, backed the prime minister ahead of his peace summit with Pakistan's president but cautioned against making the Kashmir dispute the centerpiece of the talks.

"In this euphoria, there should not be any lowering of guard across the border," Pramod Mahajan, the parliamentary affairs minister, quoted opposition leaders as telling the prime minister.

"Today's meeting has strengthened the hands of the prime minister."

Meanwhile the violence continues in Kashmir as police say at least 20 people were killed at the weekend in fresh violence ahead of the summit.

Indian security forces have launched a new offensive to flush out guerrillas from the troubled state since New Delhi called a ceasefire on May 23. More than 350 people, mostly separatist guerrillas, have been killed since then.

Officials say more than 30,000 people have died in separatist violence in the restive Kashmir region since a rebellion broke out at the end of 1989.

Raising hopes

A police spokesman said two separatist guerrillas and an army soldier were shot dead on Sunday in a fierce gun battle in the Hyderpora area of Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir. Seven Indian soldiers were wounded, police said.

On Saturday night, an Indian security officer, two militants, and a civilian were killed in separate clashes in Kupwara district 90 km (55 miles) northwest of Srinagar, police said. Two more militants and another civilian were killed in fighting elsewhere in Kashmir, they added.

Earlier on Saturday, police reported that Indian security forces shot dead 10 militants in the state in separate incidents.

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.