Pak wants unconditional talks with India: Qureshi

I / Islamabad/lahore September 17, 2009, 15:15 IST

Pakistan today accused India of mounting propaganda on issues like the Mumbai attacks and said nothing can be achieved by putting "pressure" on it even as it sought unconditional talks to resolve outstanding matters.

"We want a dialogue (with India) but we are not willing to accept any conditions... We want talks in an open and friendly atmosphere. They (India) are mistaken if they think they can achieve anything by putting pressure on Pakistan," Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told reporters in Lahore ahead of his departure for the US. 

Qureshi, who is scheduled to meet his Indian counterpart S M Krishna on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, said India had been issuing statements and taking up issues like terrorism with the world community to "put Pakistan on the defensive".      

Such moves, he claimed, were prompted by India's "internal political compulsions" but Pakistan will not be affected by them.      

In Islamabad, Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit told a weekly news briefing that efforts by India to lobby the US to pressure Pakistan on issues like the Mumbai terror attacks amounted to "anti-Pakistan propaganda".      

"We are confident that this propaganda cannot achieve anything. We are pursuing the Mumbai attacks with all seriousness and sincerity," he said, adding Pakistan is also continuing its campaign against terror.