Kashmir should be resolved by India, Pak bilaterally: US

As President Barack Obama prepares to visit India next month, the US has hoped that India and Pakistan can address and resolve the "important" Kashmir issue bilaterally.

"This is an issue that we hope that the two sides can address and resolve, but this is obviously an important bilateral issue between the two governments," State Department spokesman P J Crowley told reporters at his daily news briefing.

"This is an issue between Pakistan and India. It is important. There have been successful discussions between Pakistan and India on this subject in recent years," he said.

"Some of those very fruitful discussions occurred between the former governments of India and Pakistan," as he referred to the back channel talks between New Delhi and Islamabad when the two countries, according to media reports, were on the verge of arriving at a negotiated settlement which could not take place due to the fall of the Musharraf regime.

The Obama administration has been maintaining that the Kashmir issue has to be resolved by India and Pakistan and that it does not intend to interfere.

President Obama is slated to undertake the "landmark" visit to India in the first week of November during which he is expected to travel to Mumbai and New Delhi, where he will hold talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other Indian leaders on further upgrading Indo-US strategic ties.

Meanhwile, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the United Nations was willing to use its "good offices" in resolving the Kashmir issue if both India and Pakistan sought the assistance of the world body.

"As far as this role of good offices is concerned, the United Nations normally takes that initiative when requested by both parties concerned," Ban told journalists during his monthly briefing at the UN Headquarters.