Peace in South Asia is the key to the region's development and so India wants to resolve all issues, including Kashmir, with Pakistan, visiting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president L.K. Advani said.

Talking to reporters on his arrival here Monday night, Advani said his party had been playing a positive role to ensure the success of the peace talks with Pakistan and would continue to do so.

A caravan of peace had begun its journey and should reach its destination, Advani said, reported The News newspaper here.

Pointing out that the peace process had been initiated by the BJP and that the present government was taking it forward, he cited former Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's bus ride to Lahore in 1999 and the 2001 Agra summit as the major achievements of his party.

Advani, however, declined to comment on Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's sttement that a solution to the Kashmir issue lay in greater autonomy for the region.

During his visit, Advani is scheduled to meet President Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri and ruling Pakistan Muslim League chief Shujaat Hussain.

Though one of the main reasons behind the BJP president's visit is to see that part of Karachi where he was born in 1927, the Pakistan government has invited him in his capacity as opposition leader, which gives him the status of a cabinet minister.

Advani will visit his birthplace and St. Patrick's School in Karachi where he studied. He will travel to Lahore, as also Hyderabad in Sindh province, where his forefathers lived.

The Hyderabad provincial government and old neighbours of the family in Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city, and at Shahi Bazar in Hyderabad are reportedly eagerly awaiting Advani's arrival.

Advani will spend Tuesday and Wednesday in Islamabad and leave for Lahore Thursday. On the way he will halt at a Hindu temple. He will spend Thursday night at Lahore.

He will fly to Karachi Friday night and spend the next two days there before returning to New Delhi June 6.

Advani is likely to meet Pakistani opposition leaders, but Pakistan People's Party (PPP) spokesman Farhatullah Babar said he was not aware of any meeting.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was also unsure if its party leaders would call on Advani.

Advani is generally perceived as a hardliner in Pakistan and many here still blame him for the 1992 razing of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya, an issue that generated violence even in Pakistan.

He has also been widely blamed for the failure of the Agra summit between Vajpayee and Musharraf.

This is Advani's first visit to Pakistan since 1979, when he came here as information and broadcasting minister in the government of then prime minister Morarji Desai.

--Indo-Asian News Service