Islamabad, June 13
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld today brushed aside Pakistan’s suggestion that Washington should do more to help normalise relations between India and Pakistan and emphasised that the two countries need to resume their dialogue.

“There is no magic wand,” Mr Rumsfeld said at a press conference here when Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdus Sattar said “we expect more from the USA”.

He said ultimately the countries have to sort out their problems on their own. “They can do it with some help... but problems get sorted out on the ground.”

Stating that the international efforts to reduce Indo-Pak tension was making progress, Mr Rumsfeld said after holding talks with President Pervez Musharraf that the two countries “need to talk to each other.”

Mr Rumsfeld said the two countries need to have diplomatic relations and ways of communicating to each other about issues like resumption of road, rail and air links.

However, he said it was for the two countries to decide when to hold the talks.

To a question on military de-escalation, Mr Rumsfeld said “we expect force reduction but left it to India and Pakistan to take a decision in this regard as they were “sovereign’’ countries.

Terming the Kashmir issue as “significant’’, Mr Rumsfeld said at some point, the two countries have to find ways to communicate on it.