'Pak engaging India, Afghan in talks to solve regional issues'

Islamabad, Oct 26 (PTI) Pakistan is engaging key players in South Asia, including India and Afghanistan, in talks to resolve regional issues including the water problem, President Asif Ali Zardari has said.

"I have met (Prime Minister) Manmohan Singh once and the
(Pakistan) Prime Minister (Yousuf Raza Gilani) met his Indian
counterpart twice in the recent past and our focus of talks
was the water issue, as Pakistan is concerned about water,"
Zardari told 'The News' daily.

The President said Islamabad was also engaging Kabul in
talks to resolve the issues confronting the region. His
remarks came as Pakistan's relations with Afghanistan have
been under stress over the issue of terrorism.

He described his recent visit to China, his first
official bilateral tour abroad after becoming President, as
highly successful. Pakistan and China signed several
agreements during Zardari's visit, including one on building
two new atomic reactors at the Chashma nuclear complex.

He also said the new U.S. President, who would be elected
in the November 4 polls between Democrat Barack Obama and
Republican John McCain,, would herald a new international
political environment with fresh challenges and Pakistan has
to play its role in such an environment.

Referring to his forthcoming visit to Saudi Arabia,
Zardari said this trip would take the "strategic brotherly
relations with the kingdom" to new heights. He said he has a
far better personal understanding with the Saudi royal
leadership than anybody else.

The Pakistan People's Party (P.P.P.)-led government is
bent on "giving strength to Pak-Saudi relations under new
realities", Zardari said, adding he would focus on bilateral
ties and problems confronting Muslims around the world during
his talks with the Saudi leadership.

Zardari blamed former President Pervez Musharraf for
Pakistan's current economic woes. "The tank-commander
(Musharraf) assumed the powers of chief executive and then the
President and he left behind nothing but a mess.

"Similarly, (former Prime Minister) Shaukat Aziz,
who knows market economy or service industry, plunged the
country in an economic mess," he said.

He claimed the global economic crisis would not hit
Pakistan hard as its economy was not exposed so much.

The government and think tanks are evolving a new
strategy to effectively deal with the crisis and the Prime
Minister is doing his best to keep the effects of the global
economic crisis away from Pakistan, he added. PTI R.H.L.
RKM