India's prime minister invited Pakistan on Friday to join his country in a "treaty of peace, security and friendship" to end nearly six decades of tension between the nuclear-armed nations.

"Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, third left, flags off the Punj-Aab Express, the bus service between India's Amritsar and Nankana Sahib in Pakistan, as his wife Gursharan Kaur, second left, and Chief Minister of Punjab state Amarinder Singh, left, look on, in Amritsar, India, Friday, March 24, 2006. Singh launched a new peace initiative Friday with Pakistan, offering a treaty of peace, security and friendship, to India's longtime rival, in the hope that issues from trade to Kashmir could be more easily settled. [AP]

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appeared to be proposing an umbrella accord that would foster relations and enhance the prospects for agreement on flashpoints such as the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.

"I am convinced we can move forward, if all concerned are willing to accept the ground realities; if all concerned take a long view of history and our destiny," Singh said at a ceremony starting a new bus service between India and Pakistan.

Pakistan's foreign ministry welcomed the overture but stressed the need for taking "bold and sincere steps" to resolve Kashmir, which is divided between the two neighbors.

Pakistan has always maintained that resolving Kashmir "can release the full potential of the people of south Asia to make progress, and fight poverty, disease and ignorance," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said.

India made a similar offer to Pakistan in the mid-1980s, but Pakistan insisted that they settle the Kashmir question before attempting other moves toward peace.

"It would be a mistake to link normalization of other relations with finding a solution (to Kashmir)," Singh said. India and Pakistan have fought three wars since gaining independence in 1947, two of them over Kashmir.

The prime minister also praised Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf for taking "bold steps" to curb terrorism, but said more work needs to be done.

India accuses Pakistan of aiding Kashmiri militants who are fighting for independence from India or a union with Pakistan, a charge Islamabad denies.

Relations between India and Pakistan have improved considerably since the start of the latest peace process,in January 2004.

Still, the rivals have taken just small steps toward peace since the October quake that devastated Kashmir, a tragedy that initially seemed to bring the countries together.

The latest bus route links the Indian city of Amritsar to the Sikh pilgrimage site of Nankana Sahib in Pakistan, the birthplace of the first Sikh guru. Other transportation links have been renewed ¡ª by bus, train and plane ¡ª since the two nations came to the brink of war in 2002.

After his speech, the gold bus, with the Indian and Pakistani flags on its side and bedecked with flowers, pulled slowly out of Amritsar with passengers and the crowd waving.