"We need peace in the region for the development of our people, for ending poverty and raising literacy in India and Pakistan," he told reporters after meeting Pakistani leaders, including President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.

Advani said the people of both countries had adopted the peace process and they would not allow their governments to derail it.

The governments of India and Pakistan were left with no choice but to carry forward this process. "There is no U-turn to this and we'll have to move forward... there is complete consensus in India over these moves," he said.

"I am happy that the tone for peace that was set by the BJP government is being carried forward," he said.

Advani, on a weeklong visit to Pakistan, Tuesday also met Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri and Muhammadmian Soomro, chairman of the upper house of parliament or the Senate.

The former Indian deputy prime minister, usually seen as a hardliner in Pakistan, said his meetings with the Pakistani leaders were "very useful".

He termed his talks with Musharraf as a milestone in the normalisation of relations with Pakistan. "I found him very clear in his views about relations with India," said Advani who met Musharraf at his office in nearby Rawalpindi.

He said Musharraf sounded very positive about the peace process and "we both agreed that peace is the only way to development".

Advani is visiting Pakistan with his family members at the invitation of Kasuri and is also scheduled to travel to Lahore and Karachi, where he was born.

"I am thankful to the government and people of Pakistan for providing this opportunity to visit Pakistan... and for the hospitality they have extended me," said Advani, who is being treated as a state guest.

Talking about the initial initiatives for peace between the two nations, he said the credit for this should go to former Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who took bold steps for normalising relations with Pakistan.

Advani said a breakthrough in the India-Pakistan peace process was Musharraf's views that he expressed in the January 2004 joint statement after meeting Vajpayee.

Earlier on Tuesday, Advani also said the BJP fully supported the Congress-led government in India in peace talks with Pakistan and agreed that the two countries should resolve all disputes, including Kashmir.

"The prime minister has said that Pakistan wants to resolve all issues including Jammu and Kashmir and I agree with this," Advani told reporters after a one-hour meeting with Prime Minister Aziz.

The Pakistani media Tuesday gave prominent coverage to Advani's visit, with one Sindhi newspaper calling him "a son of Sindh". Other national dailies described him as a politician who would contribute in a major way to normalising relations between India and Pakistan.  

During his interaction with reporters, Advani replied to a question on the 1992 razing of the Babri mosque at Ayodhya in India by saying that he had time and again stated that "it was a sad chapter in my life... I've already offered my regrets on the issue".

Asked if he was involved in an attempt to assassinate Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Advani said that these are "baseless charges".

A formal complaint was filed with Karachi police against Advani and 17 others for allegedly conspiring to kill Pakistan's first president Jinnah and other leaders in 1947 after Advani had left Pakistan.

The case was lodged at Karachi's Jamshed Quarters police station on Sep 10, 1947, a few weeks after the partition of the Indian subcontinent. The Pakistan government has now virtually closed the case.