Pakistan regrets 'hiccup' in bilateral ties

Describing the Mumbai terror attack as a setback that paused the Composite Dialogue with India, Pakistan on Wednesday expressed confidence that 'this hiccup' in the bilateral ties will be overcome.

"This unfortunate incident has been a setback... to the extent that our Composite Dialogue is at a pause at the moment," Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told a joint press conference with his Swedish counterpart Carl Bildt after their meeting.

However, Qureshi said he was "confident that we will overcome this hiccup", adding that "the future of Pakistan demands good neighbourly relations with India, so it's my responsibility to develop good bilateral relations."

He said India and Pakistan needed to avoid the blame-game and finger-pointing as that would be "counter-productive and take us back to where we started from".

Asked if Pakistan would approach the United Nations Security Council to delist the Jamaat-ud-Dawa and other entities from the terrorist list of sanctions, Qureshi said this could be considered at an appropriate time, after building a foolproof case.