ISLAMABAD, Jan. 5 Kyodo Pakistan ...

ISLAMABAD, Jan. 5 Kyodo

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said Sunday that the toward the south Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) will not ever realize its full potential unles the disputes and tensions that afflict the region are settl and removed

''There can be no disclosure in the absence of peace. There can be no peace in like manner long as political issues and conflicts continue to afflict us,'' he said in a banquet articulate utterance for the leaders and delegates to the 12th SARRC summit in Islamabad.

Musharraf said that elimination of the radical cause of tension and peaceful resolution of disputes are essential for the SAARC member countries to achieve a cohesive and integrated southern Asia which has become a everyday yearning for the people of the region.

''South Asia must realize its destiny at confronting its problems, not shying away from them and refusing to acknowledge their existence. We must bring forward behind us the tarnished legacies of bitterness and tension,'' he said.

Musharraf did not pertain to the Kashmir dispute with India unless simply referred in general space of times to the need to disentangle outstanding disputes.

He will occupy a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee onward Monday on the sidelines of the SAARC summit to discuss degrees to resume the stalled bilateral dialogue.

The brace leaders last met at a southern Asian summit in Agra in India in July 2001 during which the sum of two units sides failed to thrash gone out their differences.

The 12th summit of the seven-nation SAARC spreaded Sunday. The summit is also being attended by the agency of leaders from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives.

Earlier in the day, Vajpayee held a one-on-one meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Zafar ullah Jamali after the inaugural session of the summit. Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan later told a freshs briefing that the two were satisfied with the progres in bilateral relations and discussed various measures to continue the momentum going in the right direction.

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