M A I N   N E W S

National security panel recast

NEW DELHI, May 31 (PTI) — The government today reconstituted the National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) re-appointing noted defence analyst K Subrahmanyam as its convener and including for the first time three former service chiefs in the board.

The new 19-member NSAB, which was reconstituted by the Prime Minister's Office for a one-year term, will have Gen (retd) F. Rodrigues, Adm (retd) V.S. Shekhawat, Air Chief Marshall (retd) S.K. Mehra, two former Foreign Secretaries K Raghunath and M.K. Rasgotra and a former Defence Secretary N.N. Vohra as its members.

The new board also includes former Intelligence Bureau Chief M.K. Narayanan, former ISRO Chief Prof U.R. Rao and B.G. Verghese, representing the fourth estate.

Other members are: Air Comd (retd) Jasjit Singh, Kalyan Bannerjee, Sanjaya Baru, Maj Gen (retd) Afsir Karin, Rakesh Mohan, Roddam Narasimha, B. Raman, Jagdish Shettigar and Matin Zuberi.

The term of the NSAB will begin from the date of its first meeting.

The term of the board which acts in an advisory capacity and a think tank for the Prime Minister's National Security Adviser had expired late last year.

The Kargil Committee, which went into causes leading to last year's clandestine intrusion by Pakistani troops in Kargil sector, in its report submitted to the government had recommended reconstitution of the National Security Advisory Board.

The committee was headed by K Subramanyam who is also the convener of NSAB.

The reconstitution of the board follows government taking steps to set up six high-level sub-committees to go into recommendations of the Kargil Committee which had suggested a major overhaul of intelligence set-up in the country as well as decision-making on security matters.

India’s terms for talks with Pak

NEW DELHI, May 31 (UNI) — Pakistani chief executive Gen Pervez Musharraf today said he was ready to travel anywhere to have talks with the Indian leadership, but India reiterated that any dialogue could be held only after Islamabad created a suitable environment by bringing an end to cross-border terrorism.

"India has never baulked at dialogue. But you cannot assist cross-border terrorism, promote 'jehad' as an instrument of foreign policy", External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh said answering questions on the ‘World Report’ teleconference on the CNN.

Earlier on the same programme, General Musharraf insisted that Kashmir remained the "core issue’’ which needed to be resolved. "Is there any other issue... all other issues are just irritants", he said. Asked that this amounted to imposing preconditions on any future talks, he said, "It is not a precondition. It is to see the dispute in its reality".

"If it (cross-border terrorism) recedes, certainly", Mr Jaswant Singh replied to a question if New Delhi was interested in bilateral talks with Islamabad.

He said there was no question of any third party judging whether a conducive atmosphere existed for talks. "We have to judge it ourselves", he said.