Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri said Pakistan acknowledged the Vajpayee's contribution in initiating the peace process between the two countries and pledged to work with his successor to resolve longstanding differences.

"Pakistan looks forward to seriously and closely engaging with the next government in India to promote this process of peace and resolution of differences and disputes," Kasuri told reporters.

The surprise defeat of Vajpayee's right-leaning Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party Thursday raised questions about the future of peace efforts after Vajpayee, who has been pivotal to the process.

But India's incoming rulers Congress immediately pledged to forge ahead with the peace process.

"We have consistently supported the dialogue between two countries ... there is no question of any change," Congress spokesman Anand Sharma told AFP.

Vajpayee, 79, is credited with launching the year-old peace bid with Pakistan, offering a "hand of friendship" at a landmark speech on April 18 last year, almost a year after the two countries came to the brink of war.

He and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf cemented months of normalisation moves with a landmark agreement in January, during a regional summit in Islamabad, to resolve disputes including the thorny issue of Kashmir.

Vajpayee acknowledged Kashmir as a bilateral dispute which needed resolution through talks with Pakistan, and Musharraf vowed to stamp out militancy in areas under Pakistan's control -- a commitment seen as a first-ever vow to curb anti-India militants operating out of the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir.

"There was a personal rapport that had been established between the two leaders," Pakistani analyst Mushahid Hussain told AFP.

"It will take time to develop that rapport now. The pace of dialogue may slow down as the new government will have its own priorities."

Information Minister Sheikh Rashid earlier told AFP from Kuala Lumpur, where he is attending a Non-Aligned Movement conference, "the desire for peace is not linked to individuals."

He said: "Pakistan is very sincere in carrying forward the peace process... and hope the next government in Indian will join us in this endeavour so that this historic opportunity for peace in South Asia is not missed."

According to a timetable fixed in February, both countries' foreign secretaries are to meet in June for talks on Kashmir, followed by talks in July on seven other issues, including terrorism.

Foreign ministers are to join foreign secretaries for talks in August to review progress.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's Islamic groups gloated at BJP's defeat, revelling in the rejection of what they saw was the former government's heavyhanded Hindu bias.

"Indian Muslims can now feel more comfortable with Congress in power," Hafiz Hussain Ahmed of the hardline Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam told AFP.

The outlawed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) guerrilla outfit, one of the fiercest rebel groups fighting Indian rule in disputed Kashmir, said it wanted to celebrate Vajpayee's defeat.

"God has punished BJP and Vajpayee for what they did to Muslims in Gujarat and Kashmir," an LeT activitist told AFP, referring to bloody Hindu-Muslim riots in the western state of Gujarat in 2002 in which 2,000 people died.

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