INDIA Incoming leader urges investment, peaceful relations

Manmohan Singh replaces Sonia Gandhi, who rejected the post of prime minister.
NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- Manmohan Singh, the soft-spoken economist named India's next prime minister, pledged today to work to restore religious harmony, keep India investor-friendly and seek peace with rival Pakistan.
Singh's appointment Wednesday ends a week of political turmoil in which Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born widow at the head of the country's most powerful political dynasty, turned down the job.
She remains leader of the Congress party, which ousted the Hindu-nationalist party of Atal Bihari Vajpayee in recent national elections.
Singh, a Sikh, will become India's first non-Hindu prime minister.
"Unity and communal harmony are a priority," he said, calling on Indians to embrace the inherent tolerance of Hinduism, the predominant religion of this nation of more than 1 billion people.
"We are the most tolerant civilization in the world -- that is our great heritage. We have to strengthen and build on that heritage."
Vajpayee's party was widely accused of ignoring, and even stoking, deadly anti-Muslim riots in 2002 in the western state of Gujarat. His Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 1999 on a platform of eventually creating a Hindu nation, while Congress has pledged to maintain secular government.
"The essence of Hinduism is that parts may be different, but the goal is the same," said Singh, alternating between Hindi and English.
Impact on markets
Wearing a traditional Sikh turban, Singh addressed the nation shortly before the start of India's trading day. Minutes later, stocks opened higher, but later fell on word that he is opposed to privatizing state-run banks and the Oil and Natural Gas Corp.
Although investors have backed Singh, a former finance minister who was behind India's dramatic market reforms of the 1990s, they don't welcome a halt in the government's efforts to sell state-run companies.
Still, Singh said the economic reforms promoted by the Vajpayee government would continue.
"The emergence of India as a major global economic power happens to be one such idea whose time has come," he said.
"Reforms with a human face will be pursued," Singh said, adding that reforms must not leave behind farmers, the rural poor and minority ethnic groups that the Congress party said were ignored by Vajpayee.
Reference to Gandhi
"The war against poverty and disease has to be carried on relentlessly, and I pledge our government to remain steadfast in our commitment," Singh said. "In the words of Mahatma, to build an India free from the fear of war, want and exploitation."
He was referring to Mohandas K. Gandhi -- called Mahatma, or "great soul" -- India's independence leader who often said India would never become a major power without first lifting its people from poverty.
Singh said "friendly relations" with Pakistan were a priority, after three wars with its nuclear rival since independence from Britain in 1947.
"We must find ways and means to resolve all outstanding problems that have been a source of friction," he said. "Without sacrificing our national security imperatives, to create an environment to move forward and improve our relations with Pakistan on a priority basis."