Put "ancient animosities" behind, says PM at dinner meet with

Mohali, March 31 (PTI) Buoyed by his cricket
diplomacy, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that
India and Pakistan should put their "ancient animosities"
behind them and work for a "permanent reconciliation" and
"cooperative solutions" to their problems.
Speaking at a dinner he hosted for his Pakistani
counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani Wednesday night on the margins
of India-Pakistan World Cup cricket semi final match here,
Singh said the two neighbouring countries "should be working
together to find cooperative solutions and need permanent
reconciliation to live together in dignity and honour".
"We should put our ancient animosities behind us to
attend to the problems of our nations," he said.
Singh later said that "the beautiful game of cricket"
has been a "uniting factor" in bringing together the two prime
ministers.
"Cricket", the Prime Minister told a TV channel, "has
been a uniting factor. It has brought our two PMs together and
I daresay that’s a very good beginning".
Singh said that "whatever be the differences between
our two countries, we have to find ways to resolve them".
"Gilani-sahab and I have had extensive discussions on
all outstanding issues and we have reaffirmed our resolve that
there are difficulties in the way but we will make every
honest effort to overcome those difficulties.
"And the message from Mohali is that the people of
India and Pakistan want to live in peace and amity and that
the two PMs have committed their governments to work in that
direction," he said.
Singh said he was "very grateful" to Gilani for
"having accepted my invitation to join me in watching this
beautiful game of cricket".
Gilani on his part termed his talks with Singh as
"positive" and said they discussed all the core issues between
the two countries.
"Talks were positive. We discussed all the core issues
between the two countries," Gilani told the Pakistan media in
a brief chat after his dinner meeting