Indian Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, said today the de facto border dividing Indian and Pakistani Kashmir will not be converted into a permanent border to settle the Kashmir dispute.
"There is no question of entering into such an agreement," Mr Vajpayee told a railway function in the eastern Indian Bihar state capital Patna.
There has been sporadic gunfire and artillery shelling across the Line of Control, the de facto border, amid heightened tensions between the countries following the December 13th militant attack on India's parliament, which New Delhi blames on Pakistan-based militants.
India also accuses Pakistan of backing militant groups in Kashmir, but Pakistan says it only extends diplomatic and moral support.
Mr Vajpayee recently rejected Pakistani President Mr Pervez Musharraf's proposal to hold peace talks saying such a dialogue could only be held once Pakistan stopped "cross-border terrorism" in India.
AFP