NEW DELHI, June 25: Foreign Secretary Salman Haider today affirmed that there was no dispute on the status of Jammu & Kashmir, thereby implying that it could not form part of the dialogue with Pakistan.

``There is no dispute in our part of Kashmir, but there is PoK (Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir)...we have other concerns (in the valley) such as infiltration and support for terrorism...but we are not discussing (Kashmir) in the sense that it is a disputed area,'' he said.

Contradicting Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who had claimed two days ago that India had for the first time in the Islamabad round accepted that Indian Kashmir was under dispute, the foreign secretary added, ``That is factually not sustainable, we have discussed Kashmir a number of times... and we're not shying away from discussing our preoccupations on this subject.''

Haider was briefing journalists in the Capital for the first time since the end of the second round of talks in Islamabad. He answered a volley of questions which included Kashmir, the future mechanism for the bilateral dialogue, and terrorism in the valley.

``The general view is that this is a first step, that a great deal lies ahead, but that it also permits a large and meaningful dialogue,'' Haider said.

Haider cautioned that both sides had only tried to establish the `structure' of the dialogue so far and not gone into the `substance' of the issues.

``That is the next step, when the specifics of issues like confidence-building measures will become relevant,'' he added.

The foreign secretary said that any discussions on the subject would revolve around the entire, undivided, princely state of Jammu & Kashmir that existed before the partition in 1947.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.