US Ambassador to India Richard F Celeste's remarks recently on Kashmir were fully consistent with the American policy, state department spokesman James Foley said here yesterday.

Foley was of the view that the controversy over the Ambassador's remarks was over ``semantics and not over substance''.

He said Celeste's remarks indicated the US position that it wanted both the countries to ``undertake direct talks to address the very serious differences on Kashmir.''

The spokesman said, ``The US has long held the position that all of the pre-independent state of Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed territory and believes that an ultimate resolution must be achieved through negotiations between India and Pakistan taking into account the interest and desires of the people of Kashmir.''

The Ambassador had onlyreiterated the US long-standing position ``that those differences can only be resolved through bilateral discussions at the highest level.''