Musharraf to offer alternatives to Kashmir plebiscite

"He's not dropping the call for plebiscite," Rashid told AFP.

"He's saying that we can think of certain other things, we have some alternative proposals. He's prepared to offer some alternatives."

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While it is not clear that Musharraf has committed to abandoning demands for a referendum, the offer to negotiate on the key platform of Islamabad's Kashmir policy could mark a dramatic turning point in relations between Pakistan and India, just weeks ahead of Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's visit to Islamabad for the January 4-6 South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) summit.

The minister declined to outline the "alternative proposals", saying only that Musharraf would raise them with Indian leaders when "serious talks" are held.

"He has them in his mind, when there's serious talks he will talk," Rashid said.

Pakistan has demanded Kashmiris be allowed to choose between rule by Pakistan or India since 1948, a year after Pakistan was carved out of India in the partition of the subcontinent.

The demand for a plebiscite has been backed by the United Nations Security Council in several resolutions since 1948.

Islamists were up in arms at the suggestion of backing down on the plebiscite demand.

"Any unilateral decision bypassing the Kashmiri people will not be acceptable to us" Liaquat Baloch, a federal MP and executive of Pakistan's most powerful Islamic party Jamaat-i-Islami told AFP.