Vajpayee has hinted Kashmir would be his last peace initiative, and when asked what would happen if he failed he said: “Then I have to accept my defeat, then I’ll have to go into retirement.

“I have emphasized more than once that we want peace with Pakistan and are striving for friendly cooperation,” he told the weekly German news magazine in a wide-ranging interview.

“The geographical location of the two countries alone makes it essential for India and Pakistan to have good relations. We all only stand to gain by no longer exhausting ourselves in a nonsensical confrontation.”

Vajpayee also said that the two countries “are partners in an international coalition against terrorism and in order to fight it everywhere we need to support each other.”

Vajpayee offered on April 18 a “hand of friendship” to Pakistan, which had been calling for dialogue for several months.

He said it was his third and final bid for peace between the neighbors, who have been at loggerheads since the subcontinent was partitioned in 1947.

Their 17-month standoff was triggered by the deadly December 2001 attack on India’s Parliament, which New Delhi blamed on Pakistani intelligence agencies.

Vajpayee said he had no immediate plans to meet President Pervez Musharraf but is prepared to negotiate with him.

“Will you meet the Pakistan president?” he was asked in the interview.

“A meeting is not planned,” the prime minister said and added no other top-level meeting was planned either between the two countries immediately.

Vajpayee reiterated that Pakistan must take “resolute and credible” measures to end cross-border terrorism for the resumption of the stalled bilateral dialogue and that even then it would be a step-by-step process.

He noted Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali had invited him to visit Pakistan during their telephonic conversation.

“In my response, I underlined the necessity to prepare the ground for a sensible commitment on the highest level, step by step. We must see resolute and credible measures of Pakistan to end cross-border infiltration and to eliminate the infrastructure supporting terrorism,” Vajpayee said.

He said his offer of a “hand of friendship” should not have surprised anyone because he had more than once stressed that India desired peace with Pakistan and “friendly cooperation.”

The prime minister said Pakistan had done nothing to completely stop cross-border terrorism. He dismissed a suggestion by the interviewer for accepting a “fair international judgment” on India’s charge of cross-border terrorism and Pakistan’s denial of it.

“Even a glance of the map of the region shows that the areas along the Line of Control (LOC) are mountainous and densely wooded — and suffer from an inhospitable climate; that observers from outside who are not familiar with the surroundings can hardly hope to sensibly fulfill their role as observers,” Vajpayee said.

The LOC is the military cease-fire line that divides the Himalayan region between India and Pakistan.

When the interviewer suggested that Musharraf possibly does not control the terrorist outfits, Vajpayee said if it were “some scattered fighters” they would not be in a position to terrorize the population of Jammu and Kashmir.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder praised yesterday Vajpayee for trying to resolve the conflict over Kashmir and urged Pakistan to respond to the peace initiative.

“Preventing terror is the obligation of every civilized government,” Schroeder told a press conference after talks between the two leaders, and noted the “positive steps” taken by India.