WASHINGTON, May 20: US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s deputy will travel to India and Pakistan soon to try to ease tensions between the nuclear rivals, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Monday.

Asked about reports in the region, which have predicted Armitage would arrive in early June, a senior State Department official told reporters separately on condition of anonymity that they would “probably turn out to be correct”.

Boucher was also asked about the first week of June and replied: “I’m not quite ready yet to speculate on the timeframe but that would qualify as being in the near future, yes.”

Secretary of State Colin Powell made the last big diplomatic push at such a senior level in January to try to avert war between the neighbors who have massed a million men on their border in an escalation over disputed Kashmir.

That trip was prompted by a December attack on India’s parliament that New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based militants fighting Indian rule in Kashmir.

Now India is enraged by another attack on an army camp last week that it blamed on Kashmiri separatists and then expelled Pakistan’s ambassador in protest.

Boucher did not criticize the diplomatic move but made clear Washington did not regard such decisions as helpful.

“We think the surest way to lower tensions and resolve the disputes between the neighbors is through more dialogue between them, not less. That makes it important to keep their channels of direct communication open,” he said.

Fears of conflict have spiked, with forces trading heavy fire for a fourth day Monday and financial markets in both countries hammered by war nerves.

“We have made clear what our strong concerns are about the potential for conflict between India and Pakistan,” Boucher said.

“We’ve been working with both those governments to try to see if we can’t use the excellent relations that they each have with the United States to contribute in some way to an easing of the tensions,” he added.

Pakistan’s relationship with Washington has improved significantly since Sept 11 attacks on the United States prompted Musharraf to cast his lot with the US war on terrorism in neighboring Afghanistan.

Powell has kept in telephone contact with both sides and spoke to Musharraf again Sunday, Boucher said.

“We do expect Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage to travel to the region in the near future. I don’t have details of dates for you at this point,” he told a news briefing, adding that Armitage would visit India and Pakistan.

It was the first official confirmation of Armitage’s intention to travel to the region, hinted at last week by US officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Boucher declined to give details on Powell’s conversation with Musharraf, but said that in his discussions with both sides, “he’s always looking for what the United States can do and how we can help ease the tensions between them, and that’s the context of the phone call.” Armitage met Yogindra Narain, a defence secretary at India’s defence ministry, for talks Monday but Boucher had no details on their discussion.—Reuters