NEW DELHI, May 27: India’s prime minister on Sunday appeared to offer some breathing space to Pakistan, saying New Delhi would hold off any action pending a diplomatic blitz aimed at defusing tension.

Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee made the gesture in a speech delivered near the northern Manali hill station shortly after Pakistan tested the Ghaznavi missile.

“We are waiting as to how much the efforts of the international community will succeed,” Vajpayee said in his 20-minute speech after inaugurating a road tunnel in the Himalayan foothills.

“We have bought some time,” was a Western diplomat’s assessment of the statement.

The premier lambasted Pakistan once again for not cracking down on “infiltration” into Indian-occupied Kashmir.

“The whole world should understand that India has a limit to its patience ... We want victory, victory over terrorism.

“We want to tell the international community that when the whole world is united against terrorism, the US forces are in Afghanistan, why should we bear these acts of terrorism and for how long?”

About the missile tests, an Indian foreign ministry spokeswoman said the tests “again lead us to reiterate what we have been saying all along that there is a very real necessity for the international community to understand clearly the actual mindset of the Pakistani leadership”.

Vajpayee’s speech, which lacked the aggression of some of his statements in recent days, came after he had met Defence Minister George Fernandes and national security adviser Brajesh Mishra.

Vajpayee also said India should have struck back against “infiltrators” immediately after the parliament in New Delhi was attacked in December.—AFP