``That's why I say because of their relationships with Russia and China, we need their help as well,'' he said adding, ``So far, the Russians and the Chinese have been very helpful to me in trying to work out a policy that we can pursue. But I'm working on it,'' he added.

He was replying to a question at a meeting of the democratic campaign supporters at ASPEN in Colorado on Sunday about his inviting Prime Minister A B Vajpayee and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif to find a settlement to the disputes between the two countries.

``Believe me, if I thought it would work, I would do it tomorrow, and I will continue to explore every conceivable option,'' he added.

The President said the May nuclear testing carried out by India and Pakistan had ``awakened the West - and Americans, inparticular - to the idea that a lot of our children's future will depend on what happens in the Indian sub-continent''. He said, he had spent ``a lot of time'' on trying to find ways to get the two nations to improve relations. And, I'm still hopeful that before the year is over, we'll be able to put them back on the right path towards more constructive relations.'' He spoke about India and Pakistan in a question-and-answer session that followed his speech.

After his speech, Deputy White House Press Secretary Barry Toiv told reporters that a Clinton trip to India and Pakistan that had initially been planned for the end of this year ``is still under review''.

Following is the transcript of the question-answer session which was available here last night:

Q: Mr President, do you have any concern about India and Pakistan. What's happening over there? What can you do about Kashmir?

Clinton: In 1993, when I took office, I got all of our people and said, let's look at the major foreign policychallenges this country faces and figure out how we're going to deal with them and in what order. And as you might imagine, we went through West Asia and Bosnia, and then we had Haiti on the list. We went through the idea that we had to build a trade alliance with Latin America, that we needed a systematic outreach to Africa, that the big issues were how Russia and China define their future greatness and could we avoid a destructive future. And we worked hard on that.But one thing that never gets printed in the American newspapers is the relationship between India and Pakistan and what happens on the Indian sub-continent. India already has a population of over 900 million and in 30 years from now, it will be more populous than China. It already has the world's biggest middle class. And Pakistan has well over 100 million people and so does Bangladesh. And so it's an amazing place. I had planned to go there to help try resolve the conflicts between the two countries. But, one big problem is that Indiasteadfastly resists having any third party - whether it's the United States or the United Nations - to mediate on Kashmir. It's not surprising. India is bigger than Pakistan, but there are more Muslims than Hindus in Kashmir - the same reason that Pakistan, on the flip side, is dying to have international mediation because of the way the numbers work.

What I think we have to do is to go back to find a series of confidence-building measures which will enable these two nations to work together and trust each other more and to move back from the brink of military and nuclear confrontation. And Indians always say they're building nuclear power because of China being a nuclear power and the border disputes they've had with China. And, oh, by the way, we happen to have this Pakistani problem.

I'm still hopeful that before the year is over, we'll be able to put them back on the right path towards more constructive relations. I mean, India, interestingly enough, is a democracy just as diverse, if not morediverse, than America. Almost no one knows this. But most, the various minorities groups in India live along the borders of India in the north.

And it would be a terrible tragedy if Hindu nationalism led to both estrangement with the Muslim countries on the border and the minorities, Muslim and otherwise, within the borders of India, and when India's democracy has survived for 50 years under the most adverse circumstances conceivable and is now, I believe, in a position to really build a level of prosperity that has not been possible before.

I feel the same thing with the Pakistanis. I think if they could somehow - they're much more vulnerable to these economic sanctions than the Indians are - ease their concerns which are leading to such enormous military expenditures and put it into people expenditures, we could build a different future there.