WASHINGTON, Jan 9: US Secretary of State Colin Powell is due to visit Pakistan and India next week, it was announced here on Wednesday.

Specific dates have not been mentioned, but Mr Powell leaves Washington on Jan 15 for a trip to Tokyo and returns on the 21st, so that the visits to Pakistan and India, and possibly Afghanistan, will fall in between.

The announcement of the secretary’s trip comes after days of speculation that the United States was planning to send a special envoy to the region to defuse India-Pakistan tensions between Pakistan and India, and trip is seen as a major effort by Washington to cool down the temperature between the two countries.

Mr Powell will be the second high-level Western visitor to South Asia this month. British Prime Minister Tony Blair concluded a visit to India and Pakistan last week.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, announcing Mr Powell’s trip, said the US considered it important that the secretary should talk to the leaders of the two countries.

Mr Powell talked to General Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday and to Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh on Wednesday, following up on several earlier calls to Indian and Pakistani leaders.

The United States has been diplomatically active ever since last month’s attack on the Indian parliament, which led to a war of words between Pakistan and India and a massive massing of Indian troops along the Line of Control and on the international boundary, sparking fears of a conflict.

There has been a slight de-escalation since the Saarc summit in Kathmandu and the brief meeting and handshake there between President Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, but New Delhi has so far rejected Pakistani overtures for talks to seek a resolution of the immediate crisis. Mr Powell’s discussions may pave the way for talks. The US, engaged in a military campaign in Afghanistan, has a big stake in ensuring that nothing further happens to destabilize the region.

ADVANI: The Indo-Pakistan question was also to be taken up in a meeting between Secretary Powell and Indian Home Minister L.K. Advani, who arrived here on Tuesday evening. The two were meeting at the State Department when this report was filed.

Mr Advani’s main agenda is described as talks on counter-terrorism with US officials, but he is also said to have brought along a list of “terrorists” whose extradition is sought from Pakistan. There are reports that Mr Advani wants US help in securing custody of the men on its list.