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EU turns down Pakistan's plea to mediate

The European Union on Saturday rejected a plea by Pakistan to help facilitate a dialogue with India and hoped that President Pervez Musharraf would take more steps to ease the prevailing tensions between the two countries.

Visiting EU Foreign Policy chief Javier Solana told reporters in Islamabad after his talks with Musharraf and Pakistan Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Inamul Haq that the 15-member grouping wanted India and Pakistan to resume dialogue to sort out their differences.

"We have conveyed to Solana that we would welcome and value a role by European Union in facilitating a dialogue between Pakistan and India," Haq said.

Solana, who arrived in the Pakistani capital after holding talks with Indian leaders in New Delhi, turned down the proposal saying the EU would not like to be a mediator or facilitator between 'these two important countries in the region'.

He said EU was trying to calm down the tensions in the region as 'if anything happens, it will without a doubt have influence beyond both the countries'.

Solana said, "Musharraf has done very very important things, very brave decisions in the last months. We would like him to continue taking decisions in that direction (of easing tensions) with same courage, with the same energy and with the same determination that he has shown."

"I am sure he is going to take that," he said.

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