UNITED NATIONS, Sept 10: Pakistan Ambassador to the United Nations Munir Akram warned on Monday that any US military action against Iraq could provide India a chance to attack Pakistan.

Talking to reporters at a luncheon hosted by him for Information Minister Nisar Memon, the ambassador said: “India needs a diversion...if the US attention is now shifted elsewhere, we will have the possibility of Indians using that diversion.”

Mr Akram said that the US diplomacy — including visits to the region by Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage — had been crucial in cooling down tensions.

“The United States ... is the country that has mediated in order to contain the confrontation,” the ambassador pointed out.

Mr Akram who was echoing the analysis put forward recently by a former US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, said that Pakistan’s friends had been asking what impact a US attack on Iraq would have on Pakistan and its stability, and on the international coalition fighting the remnants of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. “A more relevant question is what would happen if India were to take advantage of an attack against Iraq in order to launch a strike, or to provoke a conflict with Pakistan,” he said. “I think that is our real worry.”

On Sunday, President Pervez Musharraf told audience at the Harvard University that India-Pakistan relations were at the lowest ebb, with each country’s troops facing each other on borders for many months.

Gen Musharraf said the United States with friendly ties with Delhi and Islamabad “was in a unique position to facilitate the resolution of this (Kashmir) core dispute between Pakistan and India”.

Washington is keen to maintain the relative calm as another war in South Asia will hinder its anti-terrorism efforts in Afgha-nistan. The escalating tensions also generated world fears that a war could result in the use of nuclear weapons.

On Monday, US Secretary of State Colin Powell met Indian External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha and called for free and fair elections in occupied Kashmir.

Pakistan believes that elections in occupied Kashmir were no substitute to the plebiscite promised under the UN Security Council resolutions.

Mr Memon, too, said that India might see a US attack on Iraq “as an opportunity for hot pursuit” across the Line of Control, which could provoke a new conflict.