Kasab's confession won't set back peace process: Qureshi

The stunning confessions of the lone surviving gunman in the bloody Mumbai attacks will not set back the peace process between arch-rivals Pakistan and India, Foreign minister Shah Mahmood Quresh said on Wednesday.

The unexpected confession of Ajmal Kasab this week, which detailed training camps and safe houses across Pakistan, bolsters India's charges that Islamabad is not doing enough to clamp down on terrorist groups.

The three-day siege of India's financial capital in November left 166 dead and severely strained relations between the nuclear-armed enemies. Peace talks that began in 2004 were put on hold.

"Certainly that was a hiccup," said Qureshi of the Mumbai attacks. "We are overcoming that because both sides believe this is a common challenge. The only way forward is engagement with each other. So I think we will be back on track soon."

India appears more cautious. After meeting Pakistan's president last month, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said India was again ready to talk peace but cautioned that relations remain "under considerable stress" and progress would be slow with each step forward dependent on Islamabad's willingness to take on anti-India militants.

Qureshi told that Islamabad was waiting for copies of the Kasab's confessions from the Indian court, but said the issue would not impede the dialogue effort.

The foreign minister was speaking on the sidelines of the annual ASEAN Regional Forum, a gathering of ministers and senior officials from Asia, Europe, the US and Russia.

Washington is represented by US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who arrived in Thailand after high-level talks in India, during which the two nations agreed to expand US defense and civilian nuclear sales.

Qureshi said Pakistan was not concerned about closer ties between Washington and Delhi.

"We have a very independent relationship with the United States. If India gets closer to the United States it will not affect us because we have been allies for 60 years.

India is shifting its policy. Pakistan has been consistent," he said.

He praised the new US administration's policy on regionalising the fight against terrorism and its recognition that this fight had more dimensions than merely a military one.

Qureshi claimed his country's recent operation against Islamic militants in the Swat Valley was a major success because it had behind it a national consensus to fight terrorism and political-military cooperation that had not earlier existed.

He said between 1,500 and 1,700 militants were killed and their second and third-tier leadership was wiped out in the Swat Valley casualty figures that have not been confirmed independently.

"Obviously there are some big names (left) and we are trying to reach them. I hope we will be successful," he said of Pakistan's efforts to track down top Taliban and Al-Qaida leaders hiding out along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Qureshi said he hoped the Phuket conference would recognise Pakistan's sacrifice in fighting the militants and provide greater help in aiding internal refugees spawned by the recent fighting. The UN says about 2 million people have been displaced by the Swat fighting.

"We are not just fighting for ourselves. We fight for the democratic world. We are fighting for people who subscribe to our values," Qureshi said.