India's premier and opposition leader want peace with Pakistan, whose leaders also seek an end to the long conflict, President Pervez Musharraf said on Monday.
"I spoke to (former) Prime Minister Vajpayee and I gave him all the credit for initiating the peace process," said Musharraf.
"I rang him up (after India's elections) to remind him of this and tell him now that he is in opposition not to oppose the move but to keep backing the move and may I say, he was gracious enough to accept that he will back the peace initiative."
"We also know that the present government, especially Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is very keen on resolving our differences in a peaceful manner," he told Reuters in an interview.
"We want peace in the region ... There is a thaw in relations between India and Pakistan ... A process has started now and we hope that this continues. On our side both the Prime Ministers are very clear and they will pursue the peace track," he said.
Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain was sworn in last week as new prime minister but is widely expected to hand over in less than two months to Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz - a technocrat who analysts say has been handpicked by Musharraf.
But the president, who spoke on the first day of a two-day visit to Sweden, dismissed any such allegations.
"They are not (my) puppets," he said.
Musharraf declined to say whether he intends to stand by an agreement to step down as commander of the military by the end of this year - a move some say could be interpreted as a sign of weakness in a nation that has lived under military rule for more than half of its existence since independence in 1947. "I keep saying I'll cross the bridge when I reach the bridge," he said.
Asked if he believed he would have arrived at the bridge at the end of this year, he said: "I'll be at the bridge but I don't know whether I'll cross it or decide not to cross it."
Top foreign ministry officials of Pakistan and India met for peace talks late in June and their foreign ministers are due to meet in August.
"We are very glad at these developments," Musharraf said.
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