UNITED NATIONS -  Russia's Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin, who is the president of UN Security Council for October, declined to offer any comments on the growing tensions between India and Pakistan over Kashmir at his press briefing on Monday, saying the 15-member body has not been discussing the issue.

"I don't want to go there, don't want to go there. No, no, please, I don't want to go there," Churkin, a usually very articulate diplomat, said, as he cut short a question from a Pakistani journalist on India and Pakistan tensions in the course of briefing reporters on the Security Council's programme of work for this month.

Asked why he would not comment on the issue, Churkin said "because I am President of the Security Council. The Security Council has not been discussing it (the India-Pakistan situation).

"Sorry sir, I don't want to go there. No comment, no comment, sorry please," Churkin added.

Further asked again why he was so reluctant to discuss the India-Pakistan situation, Churkin said, "I'm sure you know. There are so many other things."

In his speech to the UN General Assembly on Sept 21, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif urged the Security Council to urgently implement its resolutions calling for the exercise of right of self-determination by Kashmiri people.

Last Friday, Pakistan UN Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi met with the President of UN Security Council for September, Gerard van Bohemen of New Zealand, following India's unprovoked firing across the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed Kashmir region and briefed him on the escalating tensions with India. She also met UN Secretary General Ban on the issue but he called on the governments of India and Pakistan to address their outstanding issues, including Kashmir, peacefully through "diplomacy and dialogue".

Earlier at the regular UN briefing, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq was asked what the UN position was on External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's remarks in her address to the UN General Assembly on Sept 26 that Pakistan should forget Kashmir since it was an integral part of India when the world body regards it as a disputed territory.

"We have issued a statement on the situation between India and Pakistan. I would refer you back to that," Haq said.

The questioner pointed out that the statement was about the UN chief's appeal to both countries to de-escalate tensions.

What he was asking now was why the UN did not issue a statement to Swaraj's remarks that Pakistan should stop dreaming about Kashmir. Farhan Haq replied, "We don't comment on every speech made in the General Assembly, but we have been commenting on the situation on Kashmir, and like I said, we issued a statement on that just last Friday."