Sharief asks Pak army to end firing

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief has assured his Indian counterpart Inder Kumar Gujral that he would ask the Pakistan army to get in touch with Indian forces to ensure that the situation along the Line of Control in Kashmir was brought under control.

Gujral disclosed this to the media at Delhi airport before leaving on an eight-day three-nation tour of Uganda, South Africa and Egypt.

Sharief's call to Gujral on Friday night is considered a goodwill gesture in diplomatic circles as the Indian prime minister contacted the Pakistani premier on the hotline on Wednesday, a day after Pakistani troops fired heavy artillery and mortar shells on Kargil town, killing some 20 Indian and about 50 Pakistani soldiers.

Agreeing with Gujral's view that the firing between the Indian and Pakistani troops should stop, Sharief said he had given suitable instructions in this regard to military authorities. Gujral said he had issued similar instructions.

In another development, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has expressed concern over the artillery exchanges between the two countries.

Sources said Albright voiced her concern during a meeting with Pakistani Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub Khan at the United Nations on Thursday.

Ayub Khan had raised the Kashmir issue and is understood to have sought US mediation again in the 50-year-old dispute.

Albright reportedly reiterated the Clinton administration's known position that the US has no intention to interfere in the Kashmir dispute. Supporting the Indo-Pak dialogue, she hoped that it would lead to the lessening of tension between the two countries.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff, General Jehangir Karamat has said that the Indo-Pak efforts to bring peace to the region are appreciable and the process must continue.

He, however, said that peace based on a ''shameful compromise'' will not lasting long and that the two governments must resolve the core issues.

Disclosing that the situation at the LoC has improved a little bit over the last couple of days, he said, ''Let me warn you the real point of worry is not the LoC firing but the core issue of Kashmir. Ceasefire violations are only symptoms and the cure is to have a peaceful resolution of the issues,'' he added.

UNI

EARLIER REPORTS:
Gujral, Sharief re-vow to go ahead with talks
Tensions along LoC subsides after PM's chat with Sharief