Pakistan Information Minister Sheikh Rashid said on Monday that Islamabad and New Delhi might solve the Kashmir issue in the next three years.

"The problem could be solved... but not in a way Pakistan and India want it to be," he said in Lahore while defending the aggressive policy being pursued by President Pervez Musharraf on Kashmir.

"We should mentally be prepared for this," he said without elaborating.

To a question on US Secretary of State Collin Powell's recent statement that Washington would remain engaged with India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir issue, he said, "Doors of negotiations should always be kept open."

He said when it came to the Kashmir policy, Musharraf played on 'the front foot' to keep it in the focus of the international community.

Rashid said many people in Pakistan wanted to ‘get rid of the dispute and did not consider it as jihad'. But after the

September 11 attacks, Washington turned against Pakistan's policies, he added.

The comments were seen in the diplomatic circles as a follow-up to the statements made by the chairman of Pakistan's Kashmir Committee, Sardar Qayyum Khan, a few months ago that Islamabad should consider accepting the Line Of Control as a solution.