INDIA: Pakistan's surprise offer to set aside demands for a UN-mandated referendum on the future of disputed Kashmir has spurred quiet hopes for peace in the region as well as angry charges of betrayal.
On both sides of the divided Himalayan region, the trigger for two of three wars between the nuclear-armed rivals, ordinary people are desperate for peace.
In the heart of Kashmir, in the ancient Indian-controlled city of Srinagar, people urged India to respond positively to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's apparent concession.
"India has to reciprocate . . . only then a solution is possible. Only then our sufferings, miseries and hardships will end," Mr Mohammad Maqbool said yesterday.
Mr Maqbool owns one of the famous houseboats on Srinagar's Dal Lake, fringed by snow-capped mountains.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed in a 14-year insurgency on the Indian side of Kashmir, its only Muslim-majority state.
The conflict has also driven tourists away and devastated the economy.
India has not yet responded to Mr Musharraf's offer to set aside Pakistan's 50-year-old demand to implement UN resolutions calling for both sides to withdraw troops and for Kashmiris to decide in a vote on whether to be part of India or Pakistan.
A close aide to Mr Musharraf said in Islamabad the offer was consistent with the president's previous policy statements.
"It is his consistent statement that for resolution of an issue, we have to move away from our stated positions," the aide said, dismissing talk of any U-turn in policy.
The aide explained that moving away from Pakistan's "stated position" clearly meant dropping the demand for a referendum, so Mr Musharraf was merely spelling out an offer he had made before.
"He is consistent in what he is saying, probably the public memory is short," he said. - (Reuters )