January 12, 2002	Saturday	Shawwal 27, 1422

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WASHINGTON, Jan 11: India is said to have privately hinted to Washington that it will take no unprovoked military action against Pakistan as long as American-led diplomatic efforts continue to defuse the crisis.

At the same time, the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency have intensified their surveillance of the border area between Pakistan and India and are looking for any evidence that the two sides might be putting their nuclear assets on alert.

Reporting this, The New York Times said on Friday that US ambassador to India Robert Blackwill had paid a quick visit this week to Washington for consultations at the White House and left for New Delhi on Thursday night. Mr Blackwill was thus here during Indian Home Minister L.K. Advani’s discussions with US officials. The White House has been careful not to repeat the formulation used by Mr Advani in commenting on his discussions with US officials. Mr Advani had thanked Mr Bush for what he called American support of the Indian position.

The Times report said US officials had taken note of news that New Delhi was considering beginning military exercises along the border with Pakistan, a move the administration “feared could heighten the chances for a major miscalculation”. However, officials cautioned that it was not certain the exercises would take place, and they raised the possibility that India was bluffing.

The build-up to President Pervez Musharraf’s expected speech meanwhile continues. India has said it is looking forward to a commitment to end any support to violence along the Line of Control, and the Times quoted the Indian view that if Gen Musharraf stops short of that, New Delhi’s position might harden and, according to US officials, “we might have missed a good chance to defuse the crisis”.

PRESIDENT’S VIEWS: President George Bush has stressed the need to solve the Pakistan-India dispute through diplomatic and political means and, in what Islamabad will probably see as a message directed specially at New Delhi, reminded “everyone in the region that the war there is against terrorism and not a war between India and Pakistan”.

The president’s views were reported by White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer while briefing media on the US president’s “drop-by” on Thursday during a meeting between National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and visiting Indian Home Minister L.K. Advani.

Mr Fleischer added that Mr Bush “is appreciative of the steps that have been taken by President Musharraf. President Musharraf has taken some positive steps. He has condemned the terrorist attacks; he has arrested the leaders of the Jaish-i-Mohammad and the Lashkar-i-Taiba organizations; he has closed their offices. The (US) president believes there’s room for additional work to be done, and President Musharraf is moving forward. And the president reminds all in the region that the war there is against terrorism and not a war between India and Pakistan”.

On the so-called “drop-by”, obviously arranged beforehand, Mr Fleischer said it was “designed to underscore the United States’ commitment to strong bilateral relations with India and to work together to combat terrorism in all its manifestations”.

President Bush “again expressed his outrage” over the recent terrorist attacks in New Delhi and Srinagar, and told Mr Advani that the US had urged Gen Musharraf “to take appropriate steps against extremists operating in and from Pakistan,” Mr Fleischer said.

At a State Department briefing, asked whether the US had tried to bring the Indians round to Washington’s view that Pakistan had taken significant anti-terrorism steps, spokesman Richard Boucher said: “We made the point again that President Musharraf has taken very significant steps against terrorists, cited the arrests of the leaders of some of the organizations, closing the offices, freezing the assets. We’re looking forward to the speech that President Musharraf intends to make, and I think the Indians also noted that he was going to do that. And we’re all looking forward to the kind of further steps that we expect President Musharraf to take.”