India Offers Plan to Ease Kashmir Split

Musharraf is set to hold talks on the Kashmir dispute and other issues with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today after attending a cricket match between the two nations' teams in the Indian capital.

India's proposals include setting up several meeting points along the divide to reunite families, increasing bus service and communication links, renewing trade and taking steps to promote tourism in the long-disputed territory, two-thirds of which is controlled by India.

Musharraf's response is expected in his meeting with Singh today, after which the leaders plan to issue a statement, Indian officials said.

In the past, Pakistan has been wary of measures that it fears would make it easier for India to permanently divide Kashmir.

The Pakistani leader's first stop Saturday was in the western state of Rajasthan, where he visited the shrine of a Sufi saint, Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, in Ajmer.

"We pray here that the coming times will see improved ties and an atmosphere of peace between India and Pakistan," said Musharraf, who visited the shrine with his wife. "We pray that the two nations will grow and prosper, as will the people of both nations, which will be possible only in an environment of peace."

Musharraf has repeatedly called on India to move quickly toward a negotiated solution to the 57-year dispute over Kashmir, which caused two of the three wars between India and Pakistan since they gained independence from Britain in 1947.

But India prefers a more gradual process of improving trade, travel and cultural links while pressing Pakistan to end any support for militants who continue to battle Indian security forces in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

The most significant of those steps was taken this month as bus passengers from India and Pakistan crossed the Line of Control dividing the territory for the first time since its partition in 1947.

As Musharraf spoke of reconciliation in India, police in Pakistan detained Asif Ali Zardari, the husband of exiled opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, and arrested thousands of members of their Pakistan People's Party, including several top officials.