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India, Pakistan must de-escalate: US

T V Parasuram in Washington

The United States would like to see India and Pakistan pull back their forces from the border to help reduce tension between the two countries, a senior Bush administration official said on Tuesday.

"While we are pleased with the reduction in tension, we want to see more... We would like to see them begin to pull back their troops, especially their strike forces," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity on the eve of talks between US President George W Bush and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.

"The danger of war between India and Pakistan is reduced greatly but the dangers are still out there. Both countries have their troops on the border and their strike forces are in their respective parts of Kashmir," he said.

The official said: "We would like them to pull back because there is a much less chance of an accident or mistake or misinterpretation than when you are so close to each other."

Asked whether India and Pakistan have withdrawn some of their forces, he said: "Not to the best of my knowledge."

The official said preventing a war between India and Pakistan over Kashmir and not a settlement of the Kashmir issue would be the first priority of Bush in his talks with Musharraf on Wednesday.

"We are in 2002. We are trying first and foremost to prevent war between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. We have to get past that and try other things later," he said.

He was answering a Pakistani journalist's question whether it is not a fact that the US considers Kashmir a disputed territory, which has to be resolved in accordance with the aspirations of the Kashmiri people and whether that would be the focus of the Bush-Musharraf talks.

The official reiterated Washington's "longstanding" policy that "we are looking not to mediate between India and Pakistan in Kashmir."

"We are looking to assist if both parties request our assistance. We are happy, however, that the current tensions have reduced. We cannot have any hostilities in the subcontinent that will detract from (the codename for the US-led coalition's battle against terrorism in Afghanistan) or undermine the coalition or cause instability in the subcontinent," he said.

The official said both Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Musharraf are statesmen who want to avert war and who understand that their countries need to be stable and at peace to develop economically.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell and President Bush and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, the official said, have been working very hard with India and Pakistan to reduce tensions in Kashmir.

Powell has been engaged almost daily in phone conversations with External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and Musharraf. Rice has called her counterparts National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra and Pakistani Principal Secretary Aziz several times.

When a Pakistani correspondent launched a tirade against a country that it is a "model" for terrorism, the senior US official said: "I am not sure I understand your question but I would like to say that we have an excellent relationship with India."

"India is a democracy that is stable. We believe we should have a good relationship with both India and Pakistan. We have several joint working groups with India and one of them is on counter-terrorism that was announced by the President and Prime Minister Vajpayee during the latter's visit to the US."

The official said the US has no plans to set up permanent bases in Pakistan. He said under the agreement with the Pakistani government, the US is using bases now to support Operation Enduring Freedom. "Once that is over, we will leave. We think Pakistan is capable of defending itself."

Bush's talks with Musharraf would cover a full range of bilateral and multilateral issues, including economic assistance, military relations, Afghanistan, Operation Enduring Freedom, narcotics, assistance in education and health issues, he said.

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