New Delhi, Nov 17 (IANS): Union minister and National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah Thursday backed his son and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's views on repealing the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from parts of Jammu and Kashmir.

"If the chief minister feels conditions are better and things have improved (in terms of security in the state), we should take his views," the senior Abdullah told reporters on the sidelines of a book release here.

He said he was the person who invoked the AFSPA when Kashmir was in the grip of Pakistan-backed insurgency in 1990. "But that was then. When I recently went to Kashmir, the flight to Srinagar was full of visitors. The situation in the region is much better," he said.

At the same time he added that it was a sensitive issue and any decision regarding it would have to be taken carefully.

"I am sure good discussions have happened," he said, referring to Omar Abdullah's meetings with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, senior ministers in his cabinet and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Abdullah, the union minister for new and renewable energy, didn't name the Indian Army which vehemently opposes the idea of revoking the act that gives sweeping powers to armed forces in fighting militants.

He said opposition to the proposal would always be there.

"There was opposition when we mooted the idea of lifting security pickets from Srinagar. Today, Kashmir is much more peaceful. Tourists are coming," Abdullah told IANS later.

Despite opposition, he said, "the AFSPA will gradually have to go".

Omar Abdullah has been persisting with the idea of partial lifting of the act.

He was recently in Delhi to meet the prime minister, Home Minister P. Chidambaram, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Defence Minister A.K. Antony and the army chief, General V.K. Singh.

The meetings with members of the Cabinet Committee on Security proved inconclusive. He was asked by the central government to take the army on board before taking any decision on the act.