Describing India and Pakistan as 'siblings', slain former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto's [Images] fiery niece Fatima Bhutto said there was more fortune in peace between the 'two sister nations' than war.

"We have, like siblings, more in common than we appreciate and our differences, though vast, are not impossible to overcome. They are barely visible," wrote 25-year-old Fatima, who was in Jaipur recently to attend a literary event.

"Our countries, India and Pakistan, are sister nations. We are one half of each genetically and physically," she said.

"There is more fortune in peace between our two countries than war will ever bring us. We must build bridges between our people, not bombs," she opined.

"Siblings, though stymied by rivalries at times and shadowed by each other's ghosts, are still siblings. They have to protect each other in order to survive. We can't help our pasts, but we have an amazing opportunity to push for radical change in our futures," she wrote in her weekly column in The News.

Fatima said she had gone to India 'to speak on Pakistan and to be a conduit for a message other than what we see reported on our country every day � hate'.

"I wanted to speak for what a majority of Pakistanis truly want, inside our borders and outside � peace," Fatima wrote.

On her first visit to India two years ago with her best friend Sabeen, Fatima says she stared in horror when her friend revealed that she was from Pakistan to a shopkeeper.

"Why was she trying to get us maimed? I shot her angry eyes and clenched my face; surely she would realise that flouting our Pakistani-ness might not be the best way to endear us to our neighbours across the border," she wrote.

"I was so wrong. The minute our nationality, our connection, had been revealed, the shopkeeper fell over with friendship. He waived the price altogether," she recalled.

"There are plenty of tales just like this. When the 2005 earthquake ravaged much of our northern regions, we were not the only ones to be hit; there were victims on the Indian side too. The Pakistan chapter sent relief aid to the Indian victims of the quake and the Indians sent relief to our devastated and destroyed," she wrote.

Fatima also listed 14 steps outlined by the Pakistan India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy in 2004 for 'a peaceful future between our two countries'.

On her last night in the Pink City, Fatima said she had watched the United States Secretary of Defence saying on TV that he was ready to send troops into Pakistan.

"At that point, our differences became pointless. It was no longer us against each other; there were larger threats now," she wrote.