India wants to try again to make peace with Pak: PM

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said India wanted to try again to make peace with Pakistan but Islamabad should take 'strong and effective' actions to end terrorism against his country like it has done with regard to Taliban.

A day after he met Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari in Yekaterinburg, Singh said if the Pakistani leadership shows "courage, determination and statesmanship to take the high road to peace, India will meet it more than half the way".

Singh said Zardari had told him that he was sincere in fighting terrorism but he talked about difficulties his government is facing in tackling the menace and sought 'some time' in this regard.

"I have spoken before also about my vision of a cooperative sub-continent and the vital interest people of the sub-continent have in peace. For this, we must try again to make peace with Pakistan. But for this, it is essential that strong and effective steps are taken by Pakistan against the enemies of peace," Singh told journalists accompanying him on his way back after attending two multilateral summits.

About his meeting with Zardari, Singh said they discussed Indo-Pak relations "which remain under considerable stress and strain, the primary cause of which is terrorist attacks against India emanating from Pakistani territory."

The Prime Minister said he had conveyed to Zardari "full extent of our expectation that the government of Pakistan take strong and effective action to prevent use of Pakistani territory for attacks against India and brings to justice perpetrators of past attacks, including those of Mumbai massacre and dismantle the infrastructure of terror in Pakistan."

He said Zardari told him about Pakistan efforts to deal with the menace and the difficulties that they face. Foreign Secretaries of the two countries will discuss what Pakistan is doing and can do to prevent terrorism from Pakistan against India and bring to justice those responsible for these attacks, he said.