Former Jammu and Kashmir [Images] chief minister Farooq Abdullah has expressed his desire to be the next President of the country.

However, he said he will not lobby for the post, which falls vacant in July next year when President A P J Abdul Kalam completes his term, or run after it.

But if it is offered to him, he would 'love it', he said.

"I would like to speak my mind to the government of the day," Abdullah has said in a television interview.

During the interview, Abdullah claimed former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had offered him the post and that he was to be projected as the National Democratic Alliance's Presidential candidate.

Not only did this not happen, but he was never told that he was no longer a candidate, he claimed.

"When the nomination of the other person was filed, that is when I found that I was not there," Abdullah said.

He had also not campaigned for elections in Jammu and Kashmir because of the talks about him being a Presidential candidate.

On the terrorism front, he maintained that training camps for militants across the border were still active. "And unless, literally, you come to some sort of a settlement with Pakistan, don't be under any illusion that you are going to get peace in Kashmir or in the rest of the country," he said.