NEW DELHI China wants India and Pakistan to settle their dispute over the divided province of Kashmir in bilateral talks, a Chinese diplomat said in remarks published here Saturday. Chinese Ambassador to India, Zhou Gang, told the Asian Age daily that the Kashmir dispute is an issue left behind by history, over which India and Pakistan have had differences since their independence.

China's position on the Kashmir issue is consistent and known to all. We sincerely hope that India and Pakistan will talk to each other in a frank and candid manner and resolve the issue peacefully, he said. The newspaper said Zhou's statement was a clear softening of stand by China which offered to mediate the Kashmir issue after India and Pakistan's nuclear tests.

India and Pakistan both administer parts and dispute the ownership of the Himalayan province, a cause of two wars between them. India has consistently refused third party mediation on Kashmir but Pakistan wants a UN-brokered referendum to determine the future of the Himalayan province. On the India-China border dispute, Zhou said the next round of talks would be held at an appropriate time and said the talks should be held in Beijing. India says China still holds 40,000 square kilometers (16,000 square miles) of its territory at Aksai Chin in Kashmir, while China lays claim to territory in India's far eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh. There exists no issue of China's evacuation from Aksai Chin because Aksai Chin has been China's territory since ancient times and always under the effective jurisdiction of China, he said.

Zhou said statements of Indian leaders that China was India's threat number one had marred bilateral ties. Certain personages in India made accusations against China, slandering that China posed a threat to India's security, which have sabotaged the atmosphere of the Sino-India relations and harmed the developing of bilateral relations. (AFP)