India's prime minister called for an end to bloodshed between Pakistan and India in a statement read out yesterday before a peace conference in the Pakistani capital. He said the two nations must heed the will of their peoples and learn to live side-by-side as friends.

　　"Violence and bloodshed cannot provide any solutions. We can live together only if we let each other live," Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said in the statement, read out by an Indian delegate at the conference. "Cooperation, rather than confrontation, is the answer to our common problems."

　　The conference, organized by a prominent journalists' group with branches in both countries, is the latest effort to ease tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors. It brings together Indian and Pakistani parliamentarians for two days of talks at Islamabad's Marriott hotel.

　　The 59-member Indian delegation - 33 lawmakers and 26 journalists - crossed the Indian-Pakistani border on Saturday afternoon, receiving a warm welcome from Pakistani political parties and human rights workers, who shouted slogans of peace and showered them with rose petals.

　　Yesterday, Pakistani and Indian parliamentarians sat facing each other in a brightly lit ballroom at the hotel, each taking turns to speak about their nations' future.

　　During the conference, the delegates will encourage both governments to resume stalled peace talks. They will also discuss Kashmir, a divided Himalayan region that both India and Pakistan claim in its entirety.

　　Vajpayee said in the statement, written from New Delhi, that the con-ference provided hope for the future.

　　The two nations have fought three wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947.