SAN FRANCISCO, March 1: The United States is working to ease tensions between India and Pakistan, the State Department told the Pakistan American National Alliance (PANA), a coalition of 18 Pakistani American organizations.

In a letter to PANA, the State Department said that easing tensions between India and Pakistan remains a top diplomatic priority of Washington and one on which Secretary of State Colin Powell has remained consistently engaged.

The State Department communication was in response to a PANA letter to Mr Powell about the volatile situation between the two nuclear neighbors. The PANA letter had also stressed that a durable peace in South Asia would not be possible unless the Kashmir dispute was resolved, and that US interest in that part of the world were threatened by the issue.

The State Department letter did not mention anything about the Kashmir issue, but pointed out that both publicly and privately Secretary of State Powell has repeatedly called on both Pakistan and India to take steps to reduce tensions.