In Colombia, tough-talking independent candidate Alvaro Uribe has won his nation's presidential election in the first round of voting, the first time this has ever happened. Analysts say this has given Mr. Uribe an unprecedented mandate to carry out his program to end the nation's 38-year civil conflict.
 
 

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Alvaro Uribe Velez

Alvaro Uribe campaigned against what he described as an entrenched political class, but he has had a long career in politics, serving as mayor of Medellin, the nation's second-largest city, as well as governor of the state of Antioquia and as a federal senator. 

The bespectacled Mr. Uribe has the look of a gentle scholar, but it was his tough approach to the nation's violence and insecurity that appealed to voters.

 He favors a large increase in military spending and an expansion of police forces nationwide. Mr. Uribe would also establish a citizens' network throughout the country to support the military by providing information about armed groups.

 Analysts differ on whether the hardline program presented by Mr. Uribe will be effective. The two main rebel groups, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia, or FARC, and the National Liberation Army, or ELN, both count on enormous sums of money produced by narcotics trafficking, as well as other criminal activities. 

The estimated 1,700-fighters of the FARC are considered one of the most effective insurgent groups in Latin American history. Military experts also fear that the rebels, in anticipation of the build up Mr. Uribe has proposed may step up their operations and increase terrorist attacks in the cities.
 
 

Soldier stands guard in Cartagena on election day (VOA photo - G. Flakus)

But the turnout in the principal cities was moderate-to-heavy and Mr. Uribe was the clear choice of the metropolitan voters.

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Normandy American Cemetery (photo American Battle Monuments Comm.)

 The graves seem to go on forever, row after row, filling the cliff over Omaha Beach.

 About 9,000 American men and women are buried there, near the site of the invasion that ultimately led to the liberation of France and the defeat of Nazi Germany.

 President Bush is going there on America's Memorial Day holiday, the day set aside in the United States to honor the nation's war dead. "All Memorial Days are solemn days, particularly for those who mourn the loss of a loved one," he said. "All Memorial Days are days in which Americans ought to give thanks for freedom and the fact that somebody sacrificed for their freedom."

 This year, the holiday has an extra meaning. It is the first such observance to follow the September 11 attacks on the United States, and the start of the war on terrorism.

 "This Memorial Day is the first Memorial Day in a long time in which younger Americans know first-hand the price that was paid for their freedom," he said.

 French President Jacques Chirac will join Mr. Bush in Normandy. They will attend a special service in a small church in the first village, Sainte Mere Eglise, to be liberated on D-Day.

 The French leader told reporters Mr. Bush's decision to spend Memorial Day in Normandy is a great honor for France. "This, I think, is a very strong gesture that we will not forget," he said.

 After the church service, Mr. Bush will speak at the Normandy American Cemetery. He will also lay a wreath at a monument to the slain heroes of D-Day. A group of World War II veterans will serve as honor guards at the wreath-laying ceremony.

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George W. Bush

At a joint news conference after the talks, President Bush said world leaders are trying to defuse escalating tensions between Pakistan and India.

 He said Pakistan's decision to conduct two missile tests this weekend is a matter of concern. But he said he is more worried about the cross-border raids that have claimed the lives of Indian soldiers and civilians in Kashmir.

 "We expressed deep concern and continue to express concern about testing," he said. "And I am more concerned, insisting with other world leaders including the President of France, that President Musharraf show results in terms of stopping people from crossing the Line of Control, stopping terrorism."

 The future of the war on terrorism has been a big topic during Mr. Bush's European tour. France, like many other European countries, was initially sympathetic to the president's anti-terrorism campaign. But there is growing skepticism, particularly concerning the possibility of action against Iraq.

 Once again, Mr. Bush emphasized he has no plan on his desk to wage a military operation against Iraq. He noted that Jacques Chirac was the first foreign leader to visit the White House after the September 11 terrorist attacks, and praised his support for the anti-terror effort. 

Jacques Chirac

 The newly re-elected French president then went on to praise the results of the just ended U-S/Russia summit. He also looked ahead to Tuesday, when NATO and Russia will launch a new cooperative arrangement.

 "From now on Russia will be more closely involved...and this will be the result of the NATO Council introduced in Rome," he said.

 Mr. Bush also looked to the future, saying he will continue consultations with the Europeans on relations with Russia and, in his words, ways to make NATO work better.

 As they stood before reporters at the Elysee Palace, the official residence of the French President, Mr. Bush acknowledged that the sometimes frantic pace of his European tour is starting to take a toll. He looked tired, and said he was having some trouble adjusting to constant changes in time zones. But he was energized when he talked about his plans for Monday.
 
 

Normandy American Cemetery (photo American Battle Monuments Comm.)

 "I am looking forward to giving a speech. Memorial Day in my country is a day to honor those who have sacrificed for freedom, given their lives," he said.

 President Chirac said Mr. Bush's decision to spend Memorial Day in Normandy is a strong gesture the French people will never forget.

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Emergency workers and police

 Rough seas have slowed the search for victims and debris from a China Airlines passenger jet that plunged into the Taiwan Strait on a flight to Hong Kong Saturday with 225 people aboard. 

Racing against encroaching darkness Sunday, planes and ships from Taiwan's air force and navy found no survivors of Flight 611 from Taipei to Hong Kong. But dozens of bodies have been recovered, along with debris from the stricken Boeing 747. 

Air and sea searches have revealed a widespread area of debris floating on the sea surface. 

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A woman cries after learning that her relatives were on board the plane

 Preliminary indications show that the plane had reached 10,700 meters (35,000 feet) before suddenly disappearing from radar screens, said Yong Kay, head of Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council. Mr. Yong was reluctant to speculate about what might have caused the sudden end of the flight. He indicated that Taiwan has invited personnel from the U.S. National Transportation and Safety Board to come to Taiwan and help coordinate a full investigation. 

An official examining the first bodies to be recovered reported to local media no signs of burns, but plenty of evidence of a forceful impact. Debris from the aircraft, including business cards and photographs, landed as far as 75 kilometers away on Taiwan's western coastline. None of the debris found so far reveals any evidence of fire. 

China Airlines, Taiwan's flagship carrier, had a series of accidents in the 1990s. In the past few years, it has been under intense pressure to resolve safety problems. 

The Taiwan government is also anxious to determine the cause of the accident, following controversy about its findings regarding a Singapore Airlines crash at Taiwan's Taoyuan International Airport 18 month ago. Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian instructed government officials on Sunday to make every effort in the search for victims, and to find answers to why the plane crashed. 

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Polls have closed in the Republic of Congo, where voters have cast ballots in the first round of legislative elections. The vote was held amid growing uncertainty over a rebellion that has reignited in the oil-rich nation. 

Turnout was low in the capital, Brazzaville, as voters chose from a list of more than 1,200 candidates to fill 137 seats in the Republic of Congo's National Assembly. 

The poll was the next step in the process of returning the Congo Republic to democratic rule following a decade of bloody civil wars. The conflicts pitted rivals along ethnic and political lines and killed at least 15,000 people. 

The parliament currently in place is a transitional body composed of officials who were appointed, not elected.

 The voting on Sunday occurred largely without incident. In a district of the capital, however, officials say a scuffle erupted when precinct workers refused to allow some people to cast ballots because, officials said, they did not have the required identification cards. Witnesses say the would-be voters became angry, grabbed ballot boxes and voting materials from the polling station, and ran off with them.

 The legislative vote follows the March presidential election, in which President Denis Sassou-Nguesso was re-elected by a landslide. The poll did not include Mr. Sassou-Nguesso's main rivals. But international observers judged that it was nonetheless free and fair. 

Many Congolese voted for Mr. Sassou-Nguesso hoping he, who had consolidated a cease-fire following a decade of conflict, would continue to ensure peace in the country. Analysts say they expected supporters of the President to win a majority in parliament.
 
 

Brazzaville retains many scars from conflicts of the 1990s (VOA photo - L. Ramirez)

 Government troops have been continuously pounding suspected Ninja targets in Pool in recent weeks. 

Brazzaville still bears the scars of heavy bombing and gunfire from the conflicts of the 1990s. Although the fighting this time has not come near the capital, residents are very much feeling its effects. Fuel shortages have become common in the oil-rich nation, as the fighting has interrupted railroad and highway transport routes between the capital and the oil-producing regions. Local elections, along with the second round of legislative elections, will be held on June 23rd. Voting did not take place Sunday for eight of the 14 legislative seats of the Pool region, where the fighting has been taking place. Officials say they will be held a later date, which has not yet been set.

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Martin and Gracia Burnham (undated photo)

The Abu Sayyaf gang raided the Dos Palmas resort early in the morning. They took 20 hostages, forcing them to the jungle-covered island of Basilan in the southern Philippines, a predominantly Muslim region. 

Some hostages later escaped, and others were released after ransom was paid. Three were killed, including American Guillermo Sobero. Martin and Gracia Burnham and a Philippine nurse, Ediborah Yap, remain captive.

 The Abu Sayyaf claims to be fighting to establish an independent Muslim nation in the impoverished south of the mostly Roman Catholic Philippines. In the past few years, however, the group has become known for a series of kidnappings. The group has been vaguely linked to the al-Qaida terror network.

 Some reports say the Abu Sayyaf demands $2 million in ransom for the Burnhams, an amount the couple's family and friends say they can not afford. Both the Philippine and U.S. governments say they do not pay kidnappers. Instead, the Philippine military has been hunting for the hostages. Finding them is not easy, says Colonel Jose Mabanta. 

"Basilan is two times [the size of] Metro Manila, it has very rugged terrain, thick mangrove, and crisscrossing streams and rivers make it very hard for troops to pinpoint [the] exact location of the Abu Sayyaf kidnappers," he said.

 Father Eliseo Mercado, a Roman Catholic priest and peace advocate in the south, says the problem is not in the jungle but inside the military. 

"The popular belief in Mindanao ... is that they believe there is a real connivance between the elements of the Abu Sayyaf and some elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine national police," said Father Mercado, who pointed to an incident last June. In what looked like a sure win, the military surrounded the Abu Sayyaf in a hospital. But the rebels managed to slip away with their hostages.

 Witnesses say the rebels escaped after paying off some military officers and local officials. The military denies the allegations and says a lack of troops and equipment was at fault. 

Father Mercado says more men and military hardware is not the answer. "All these massive deployments as well as technology will be rendered futile if you don't have much intelligence work in the community proper itself. I don't think the local government units as well as the communities are whole-hearted in really resolving the issue of the Abu Sayyaf," he said. 

The Philippine government has had to contend with elements of local support for the Abu Sayyaf, either because of community fear of the group or because a belief the rebels are champions for the Philippines' poor Muslim community.

 Many people hoped the hostages would be freed quickly after the United States stepped in earlier this year. More than 600 American soldiers are training Philippine troops in the southern islands, practicing skills to fight terrorists, including the Abu Sayyaf. 

Asian studies Professor Asiri Abubakar, at the University of the Philippines in Manila, says that despite American help, the rescue effort seems deliberately slow. He says that prolonging the crisis is good business for corrupt military officers and local officials. 

He also contends the crisis benefits Philippine President Gloria Arroyo's administration, which has pledged to address the economic problems in the south. 

"The entry of the American troops could be interpreted as a factor that could help the stability of the Arroyo administration, said Prof. Abubakar, who says the hostage crisis keeps the focus on the region and has prompted the United States to commit the second largest contingent of troops after Afghanistan in its war on terror. 

Prof. Abubakar and Father Mercado say the government needs to make a stronger commitment to address corruption and poverty - factors that fueled the hostage crisis and may lead to future ones. They doubt this commitment will come soon. Instead, they think the United States might secretly pay a ransom to free the Burnhams, and avoid having its effort in the Philippines be deemed a failure. 

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John Paul II in Bulgaria

 The three priests were shot by a Communist firing squad in 1952, after being convicted by a Communist show trial for allegedly being Vatican spies. Their beatification, during a three-hour mass on Sunday in the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv, puts them one step before sainthood in the Catholic church.

 While on his first trip to the mostly Orthodox country of Bulgaria, the pope has praised people for struggling against years of Communist oppression. During Soviet times, anyone practicing religion risked political persecution. Churches and monasteries were closed and Communist officials advocated atheism.

 Only about one percent of Bulgarians are Catholic and the majority of them live in the city of Plovdiv, the site of Sunday's mass.

 The journey has been a physical challenge for the aging pontiff. While on this five-day trip, which also included a short stay in the Caspian Sea nation of Azerbaijan, the pope's health has been closely observed.

 The 82-year-old pontiff, for the first time, used a motorized lift to get on and off the plane while traveling. Pope John Paul was also unable to complete saying mass in Azerbaijan. As he has on other occasions, he started the mass and then asked an aide to continue for him. His breathing is often shallow and his speech slurred. 

During his travels the pope's health has been widely talked about. After a meeting with the pope, the Bulgarian prime minister said the pontiff's mental health is better than his physical condition. But an Orthodox priest in Bulgaria said the pope's aides should caution him to be careful and save his strength. 

The pope is believed to be suffering from Parkinson's disease and hip and knee problems. 

Despite his poor health, the pope has said he has no desire to step down. There is still one country he would like to visit during his papacy, and that is Russia. 

But a rift with the Russian Orthodox Church has made such a trip impossible at this time. The Moscow patriarchy has accused the Catholic Church of trying to convert Orthodox believers to Catholicism. 

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 The train was en route to South Africa when it developed a mechanical fault going up a hill at Moamba, about 40 kilometers west of the capital, Maputo.

 The railway line has been reopened to traffic.

 Funerals for victims have begun, as authorities continue to plead for blood donations for the injured. Hundreds have responded to the call, but officials say they need more blood because supplies were depleted even before the accident.

 President Joaquim Chissano toured the crash site as a three-day national mourning period got under way. He and opposition leader Afonso Dhlakama visited some of the injured in Maputo hospitals.

 The crash is Mozambique's worst rail accident. Some reports said rescue workers were overcome at the severe mutilation of the dead. The investigation continues. 

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Exceptional security measures are being planned by Italy for a NATO-Russia summit scheduled for Tuesday just outside Rome. Italian authorities are taking nothing for granted as they prepare for a landmark signing ceremony. A security force more than 15,000 strong will patrol the area around the air base hosting the summit. Twenty heads of state and government are to take part in the one-day meeting Tuesday, including U.S. President Bush and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. 

NATO and Russia will sign a cooperation agreement at the summit, aimed at giving Moscow a greater role in the military alliance. The accord has been hailed as marking the end of the Cold War. 

The signing ceremony will be held at an air base at Pratica di Mare, about 15 kilometers south of the Italian capital. 

Major precautions are being taken to ensure security, including a naval exclusion zone around the base for the day of the summit. NATO's AWACS surveillance planes and Italian coastguard vessels will be on patrol. An anti-missile system will also be deployed. 

Security will be extremely tight at Rome's main passenger airport, Leonardo da Vinci. The Italian authorities are taking no chances, and special measures have been adopted to prevent any possible suicide missions like the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. 

Italian officials said air marshals will be aboard civilian planes flying in and out of the airport Tuesday. In addition, a decision is pending on whether to completely close the airport to all traffic during the summit. 

Rome's second airport, Ciampino, will be closed to commercial flights and its use reserved exclusively for VIPs. 

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"Loss of Eden", the new opera by composer Cary John Franklin and librettist Michael Albano, begins where many Lindbergh stories end: after the famous flight in 1927. Charles Lindbergh, is getting married to Anne Spencer Morrow, a shy and introspective woman who is to become his fellow aviator and author of best-selling books on flying. 

"Loss of Eden" is scheduled to premiere on June 9th at the Opera Theater of St. Louis. Charles McKay is the general director of the opera. "We are always excited when we are able to explore an event in history through opera because it gives us an opportunity to conduct symposia and other things and especially to engage with younger audiences and new audiences for opera who might be curious about this historical figure and this amazing man who was really the first media star ever and whose life, of course, was touched by tragedy with the kidnapping of his child," he says. "And then, of course, he was surrounded in controversy through his acceptance of the (German) Third Reich, and then he managed to rehabilitate himself and became a real explorer and leader in modern aviation."

 The grueling 33-hour solo flight across the Atlantic made Lindbergh an overnight celebrity. But only five years later, his life turned into a public tragedy when his 20-month-old son was kidnapped. Although he paid the requested ransom, the baby was not returned and his decomposed body was later found near Lindbergh's home. A home-made ladder, used to get into the second-floor nursery, and some of the retrieved ransom money linked the crime to illegal German immigrant Bruno Hauptmann. 

Charles McKay says the opera is focused on the fateful intersection of the lives of Charles and Anne Lindbergh with those of Bruno and Anna Hauptmann. "It's really not an extravagant kind of grand opera in any way. It deals much more with the private side of Charles Lindbergh's life and that of his wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh," he says.

 The opera ends at the point where the Lindberghs decide to move abroad, just as Bruno Hauptmann gets executed.

 Charles McKay suggests "Loss of Eden" should be viewed in conjunction with the current Lindbergh exhibit at the Missouri History Museum also in St. Louis. The exhibit features hundreds of memorabilia that Charles Lindbergh donated to the Missouri Historical Society. Among them are his flight suit and other aviation gear from his historic journey from New York and Paris. A cross-section replica of the Spirit of St. Louis cockpit interior helps visitors understand the challenges of the first transatlantic flight. 

The original plane hangs in the Milestones of Flight gallery of the Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. 

Benjamin Cawthra, the special project historian for the museum, says the exhibit looks at Charles Lindbergh as a cultural phenomenon of the 20th century. "People were listening to their radios in France and knew he was coming. He had no idea that he would get the kind of reception that he did. He thought he would just land and that would be it and he steps out of the plane -- there's thousands of people," he says. "How did that happen? Well, technology had advanced so quickly that you could do that sort of thing."

 Benjamin Cawthra says the exhibit also covers some of the lesser-known aspects of Lindbergh's life: his research on a blood perfusion pump (that could replace a failing heart), his flirtations with Nazi Germany, his speeches smacking of racism and his conversion to the environmentalist cause. But he says most of all, the exhibit tries to make more people aware of Lindbergh's lifelong efforts towards placing American aviation on a sound footing, both commercially and technologically.

 Historian Benjamin Cawthra and opera director Charles McKay say people of St. Louis were the first to understand Charles Lindbergh's pioneering genius. Now they hope the new opera and exhibit will remind people he was more than a famous aviator.

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Colombian independent candidate Alvaro Uribe has won his country's presidential election by an outright majority. This is the first time ever that a presidential candidate has won by a landslide following the first round of voting. 

Electoral officials say Mr. Uribe won Sunday's balloting with about 53 percent of the vote. His closest rival, Liberal Party candidate Horacio Serpa, trailed with about 32 percent. Mr. Serpa has conceded defeat, saying Colombia's fate is in Mr. Uribe's hands. 

Mr. Uribe campaigned on pledges to boost the size of the military and seek wider U.S. aid to crack down on leftist rebels. 

The United States currently provides Colombia with more than $1.3 billion in aid, but the money is restricted to counter-narcotics battle. Earlier, U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson congratulated the 49-year-old Mr. Uribe, saying Washington will maintain strong ties with Bogota. 

Electoral officials say voter turnout was substantial lin most urban areas, but that rebel threats may have impeded voters in some rural areas. In five municipalities, no one voted because insurgents burned all the ballots. 

For the past 38 years, the rebels have been at war against right-wing paramilitaries and the government. The conflict has claimed at least 40,000 lives in the past decade alone. 

Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

George W. Bush

 The visit coincides with America's Memorial Day holiday in honor of the nation's war dead.
 
 

Jacques Chirac

 Sunday in Paris, Mr. Bush called on Pakistan to end cross-border Islamic militant incursions into India. He also said he has no plans to attack Iraq.

 In other comments, Mr. Bush noted Mr. Chirac was the first world leader to offer support after the September 11th attacks, and he praised France as a decisive ally in U.S.-led military operations in Afghanistan.

 Mr. Chirac said he shares U.S. dedication to eradicate terrorism. President Chirac also said Mr. Bush's decision to spend Memorial Day in France is a strong gesture the French will never forget.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf will make a nationally-televised address later Monday on mounting tensions with India. 

The television speech was announced hours after Pakistan conducted its second ballistic missile test in as many days. Analysts say the Ghaznavi missile, with a range of 290 kilometers, could reach the Indian border region. The missile test-fired Saturday has a range of 15-hundred kilometers. 

In an interview in Sunday's Washington Post newspaper, President Musharraf says he will ensure that terrorism does not go from Pakistan to anywhere else in the world. Mr. Musharraf also calls for talks with India to settle differences, and urges a stronger international presence in Kashmir led by the United States. 

In his own speech on Indian national television Sunday, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said India's patience with Pakistan has its limits. New Delhi accuses Pakistan of backing extremists who have carried out deadly attacks in Indian-administered Kashmir and elsewhere in India. India's government says it will refuse to resume dialogue until Pakistan cracks down on militants. 

Earlier, Indian officials said they weren't impressed with the latest Pakistani missile test. 

The nuclear rivals have amassed one million troops on their mutual border, backed by missile batteries, tanks and fighter planes. 

Israel's defense minister says Israeli forces will step up their raids into Palestinian territory in response to a new wave of attempted Palestinian attacks. 

Benjamin Ben-Eliezer says the incursions are aimed at stopping what he called the 10 percent of attacks now getting through Israeli defenses. He said Israel is capturing two suicide bombers every day before they can strike. 

The Israeli army says troops are carrying out searches and arrests of suspected militants in the West Bank town of Qalqilya, which Israeli forces entered before dawn Sunday. 

Israel also carried out raids into Tulkarem and Bethlehem, leaving both West Bank towns after several hours. Palestinian residents say Israeli gunfire killed a 55-year-old man in Tulkarem. 

Earlier, Israel's cabinet voted to move the country's main fuel depot away from Tel Aviv. 

Thursday, terrorists tried to blow up the facility using a remote-controlled bomb hidden under a tanker truck. Workers extinguished the resulting flames before they could reach the fuel tanks. Experts say the quick action prevented mass casualties. 

Some information for this report provided by AP and AFP.

AP
John Paul II in Bulgaria

 However, his final event in Bulgaria -- a meeting with Catholic youths in Bulgaria's second-largest city, Plovdiv Sunday -- appeared to energize him. He said tomorrow belongs to the youth added this would probably be his last trip to Bulgaria. He also said he hoped his visit would be a good sign for Bulgaria. Earlier, he beatified three Bulgarian Roman Catholic priests killed by Communist authorities in 1952 at a Mass on Plovdiv's main square. During the trip, the pontiff also cleared Bulgaria of any link to a 1981 attempt to assassinate him by telling the Bulgarian president he never believed there was any Bulgarian involvement. He also paid homage to Bulgaria's Orthodox culture, repeating his desire for Christian unity and an end to the long-standing divide between Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism.

 Earlier this month, Pope John Paul said he intends to continue working. Popes hold their positions for life.
 
 

Some information for this report provided by AP.

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Israeli police say a bomb has exploded at a shopping center in a suburb of Tel Aviv. Reports say three people, include the bomber were killed, and dozens of others were wounded. 

Israeli media are reporting that a suicide bomber set off an explosion in a shopping mall in Petach Tikva, east of Tel Aviv. 

A police spokesman says there was a "terrorist attack" at the mall, and reports say security officials have closed off the area to search for a possible second bomber. 

Medical teams rushed to the scene and evacuated the wounded, which included a baby, to area hospitals. 

Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer warned earlier that there were daily attempts by Palestinians to send suicide attackers into Israel, but most of them have been foiled by the military. 

The explosion came hours after Israeli forces raided Bethlehem, as part of a continuing series of raids to track down militants involved in attacks against Israelis. 

Israeli security sources say one of those arrested in the sweep is Ahmed Mughrabi, a leader in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. 

Israeli sources say he was responsible for planning a suicide bombing that killed two Israelis in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Letzion last week. 

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Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf says his country does not want war with India, but is ready to respond with full force if Indian forces attack. 

In a strongly worded national speech, President Musharraf said that Pakistan is faced with a grave situation and is standing at the crossroads of history. He told his nation the danger of war with India is not yet over. 

"Pakistan does not want war," said General Musharraf. "Pakistan will not be the one to initiate war. We want peace in the region. Let me also assure the international community that Pakistan is doing nothing across the Line of Control [the disputed border in Kashmir]. And Pakistan will never allow the export of terrorism anywhere in the world from within Pakistan," said the Pakistani leader. 

India accuses Pakistan of sending armed militants to attack India and fuel a decade-long Muslim insurgency in the Kashmir. 

General Musharraf said Pakistan can not be held responsible for what he called, a liberation movement in occupied Kashmir. But he reiterated that his country would support the Kashmiris in their struggle for independence. 

President Musharraf said Pakistan has taken "bold steps" to stamp out anti-India militant groups in the county and offer peace talks to normalize relations with India. The Pakistani leader criticized India for not responding positively to these measures. 

"I urge the world community to ask India to move towards normalization of relations, which really implies de-escalation and reduction of tension on the borders, which is of mutual benefit to both the countries, initiation of a process of dialogue, cessation of atrocities being perpetrated on the people of Kashmir," said Mr. Musharraf. 

Indian officials say they will give an official response to the Pakistani leader's speech on Tuesday. 

Tensions are running high between India and Pakistan