US role will resolve Kashmir issue, says Sharif

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said the US has a positive role to play in resolving the festering Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan

Sharif Sunday began a three-day official visit to Washington where he will meet US President Barack Obama, the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported.

The prime minister said that during his US visit in July 1999 at the time of the Kargil conflict he had clearly told then US president Bill Clinton that if the US intervened the Kashmir issue could be resolved.

"I told him if he spends 10 percent of the time he was spending on the Middle East, the Kashmir issue between the two countries would be resolved," Sharif said during a stop-over in London Saturday while on his way to Washington.

Sharif said Clinton promised to look into it but then things changed.

He said India and Pakistan were both nuclear powers and the region was a nuclear flashpoint.

Sharif added that though India did not want such intervention, world powers should get involved to resolve the issue.

He said that for the last 60 years both the countries were entangled in an arms race.

"The situation can become dangerous. India has nuclear bomb, so do we. India develops missiles, so do we. There should be a limit to it. We all should think about it," he said.