January 4, 2002	Friday	Shawwal 19, 1422

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WASHINGTON, Dec 3: The United States is carefully watching the current gathering of South Asian leaders in Kathmandu for signs of a de-escalation of tensions between Pakistan and India, whose foreign ministers are both in the Nepalese capital for a Saarc summit.

The two ministers have briefly shaken hands, and the expectation, although muted, is that some contact may be possible also between President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

The US view was spelt out by State Department spokesman Richard Boucher who said at his first briefing of the New Year on Wednesday afternoon that the US had noted the Saarc meeting and hoped that India and Pakistan would use the opportunity to make progress towards resolving their differences.

Mr Boucher also said US diplomacy continued to be very active in efforts to reduce tensions in South Asia, and pointed out that Secretary of State Colin Powell had talked four times to Gen Musharraf and three times to Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh since Friday. But the spokesman said at this point it remained to be seen whether or not Washington would send any special emissary to the region.

President George Bush has been in touch with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is scheduled to visit India and Pakistan after his current trip to Bangladesh, and the two have discussed the tense situation on the Indo-Pakistan borders.

“We are pleased to see that India and Pakistan continue to take steps to act responsibly,” the spokesman said in reply to questions and took note of a number of statements by Gen Musharraf “encouraging moderation.”

He also referred to a statement by the Indian Defence Minister, George Fernandez, that Indian troops had been deployed in “assembly areas” and were not in battle positions. However, in statements published in a section of the US press on Thursday, Mr Fernandez appeared to be in his usual bellicose mood.

Asked whether Mr Powell had specifically urged Indian and Pakistani leaders to meet in Kathmandu, Mr Boucher drew attention to his earlier statement that the US saw the Saarc gathering as providing a good opportunity to lower tensions.

He also expressed concern over new incidents of violence in Kashmir, referring to the grenade attack outside the assembly in Srinagar on Wednesday. Media reports have quoted militants in Kashmir as saying they would continue their activities despite the actions taken by the Pakistan government against the Jaish-i-Mohammad and the Lashkar-i-Taiba.

KARZAI: News from Pakistan’s western front, meanwhile, suggest that the head of the interim administration in Kabul, Mr Hamid Karzai, may visit the United States some time next month for meetings with President Bush and senior officials.

Sources close to the interim administration confirmed Mr Karzai’s visit to Dawn on Thursday but said details were still being worked out.

The recently appointed special presidential envoy, Mr Zalmay Khalilzad, is due to leave for Kabul on Friday and is also scheduled to visit Pakistan, and Mr Ryan Crocker, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, is to take over as charge d’affaires at the US embassy in Kabul early next week.

The US special envoy to the Afghan opposition, Mr James Dobbins, who was in Bonn for the negotiations that led to the installation of the Karzai administration and oversaw the opening of the US embassy, is back in Washington, his work completed. But he continues to be involved with Afghan reconstruction efforts. A third senior official with a watching briefing on Afghanistan is Mr Richard Haass, who heads the State Department’s policy planning wing.

Mr Karzai, who has a long association with the US and has four brothers and a sister living here, will be the second Afghan head of state to visit the United States since Zahir Shah, then king, came to meet president John Kennedy in 1963. Before his US trip, Mr Karzai may go to India, but there is no news yet of a visit also to Pakistan, which has officially expressed its backing for the new Afghan leader.