KATHMANDU (Reuters) - A senior Pakistan military official said on Friday that traditional ally China had vowed to back Pakistan "in all eventualities".
Major-General Rashid Qureshi was asked whether Chinese leaders, visited by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf en route to a South Asian summit, had said they were ready to support Pakistan if its current standoff with India deteriorated.
Nuclear armed India and Pakistan have twice gone to war over Kashmir and in 1999 were on the brink of another conflict when hundreds of armed men crossed into the Kargil sector of northern Kashmir prompting a huge Indian offensive.
Qureshi said Pakistan had repeatedly urged talks with India including a meeting on the sidelines of a regional summit in Kathmandu between Musharraf and the Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
"Pakistan continues to hope India will respond to Pakistan's time-and-again efforts for dialogue," he said.
But India has made clear it had no plans to hold a meeting between the leaders on the sidelines of the conference until Islamabad ended what it calls cross-border terrorism.