Indian PM ready for talks with Pakistan

In his first address to the UN General Assembly as prime minister of India, Narendra Modi said on Saturday that he was ready to discuss Kashmir with neighboring Pakistan.

"I want to hold bilateral talks to improve friendship and cooperation in all seriousness and in an atmosphere of peace, without a shadow of terrorism," Modi said. "This is also the duty of Pakistan to come forward and create an appropriate atmosphere and with all seriousness come forward for a bilateral dialogue."

The divided Himalayan region of Kashmir has been a source of conflict between the two nuclear-armed nations since the Indo-Pakistani war of 1947.

India accuses Pakistan of supporting separatist militants that cross the Line of Control - which divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan controlled regions - from the Pakistan side to attack Indian forces. Pakistan denies this, and claims the Indian military violates the human rights of the mainly Muslim Kashmiris.

Sharif: 'Missed opportunity'

Modi's comments come one day after Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif used his address to the General Assembly to blame India for the collapse of talks in August, saying the world saw it as a "missed opportunity." Modi, speaking in Hindi, appeared to criticize Sharif's decision to address this at the United Nations.

"By raising this issue in this forum…I don't know how serious our efforts will be, and some people are doubtful about it," Modi told the assembly. "Instead, today we should be thinking about the victims of floods on Jammu and Kashmir."

In a gesture of peace, Sharif was invited to Modi's inauguration following his landslide election win in May. But high-level talks scheduled for August failed to eventuate after India withdrew in protest of Pakistan's plans to first consult with Kashmiri separatists.

Modi, a Hindu nationalist, will not meet with Sharif in New York, but he is expected to sit down with leaders of neighbors Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka as well as Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Modi is also due to meet with US President Barack Obama at the White House.

It is Modi's first trip to the US as India's leader. He has been banned from the country since 2005 because of accusations he failed to stop deadly rioting in Gujarat province in 2002 - while he was the state's chief minister. More than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in the violence.

nm/msh (Reuters, AFP, AP)