RAWALPINDI: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said that a solution to the Kashmir issue looked `more possible' in the aftermath of the October 8 earthquake but added a rider that it would be possible only if India saw an opportunity in it.

In an interactive session with Pakistan based foreign correspondents at his camp office here, as a build-up to the November 19 international donors conference in aid of the quake victims organised by Islamabad, Gen. Musharraf that his country could not be expected to clap with one hand.

He was answering a question posed by a Chinese journalist on the post-quake relations between India and Pakistan and the prospects for an ultimate resolution of the Kashmir issue. "This opportunity should be utilised to reach a fair settlement of the dispute. We cannot clap with one hand, I hope India realises that the solution has become more possible now in the wake of the tragedy, in which Kashmir has suffered," he said.

He said a permanent and final solution to the Kashmir issue can be found now because there "some kind of energy being generated there (on both sides of Kashmir) for mutual interaction and to assist each other. All this should be utilised towards directing it towards [a] solution of [the] Kashmir issue."

Barring these cursory references, India hardly figured in the 90 minute long press interaction. Gen. Musharraf dwelt at length on the strategy formulated by his government to sustain the relief operations in the medium term and move on to the reconstruction and rehabilitation phase in the longer term.

The burden of his argument was that the international community has not been generous in its financial contribution for the earthquake hit as compared to those affected by the tsunami. He made a fervent appeal to the world for liberal help in raising US $ 5 billion required for the reconstruction phase.

Defence expenditure

Gen. Musharraf faced a number of questions on whether Pakistan was willing to cut down its defence expenditure to divert the funds for reconstruction.

Asked whether he planned to postpone One billion dollar deal to buy Erie Eye airborne radars from Sweden in addition to postponing a four billion dollar deal to buy F-16s from the U.S., Gen. Musharraf said "we are not going to go for any aircraft deals at the moment. We have to take stock of the entire financial situation and then decide on these deals."

Asked for how long Pakistan put off the decision on the F-16s, Gen. Musharraf said, "I do not know how one is overly concerned about F-16s. I do not know how far we can delay it. One thing is clear in my mind; we have to meet the challenge [posed by] the earthquake and we can not compromise on our security requirements and on our defence ... nobody does it."

"As far as Pakistan is concerned we have [the] greatest threat. Our defence is threat based. I will not name the country," he said without mentioning India.

Also in yet another indirect reference to India he asked the media to find for itself how countries affected by the tsunami did not cut their defence expenditure even though they did not have any threat.

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