NEW DELHI, Feb 7: Russia on Thursday emphatically backed the American assessment that the risk of a nuclear war between India and Pakistan was very high today and counselled New Delhi not to consider it as an option while urging Islamabad also to quickly address India’s worries over terrorism emanating from its soil.

Responding to a question by Dawn after signing a major trade agreement in New Delhi, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov said he entirely agreed with the view expressed by the US Central Intelligence Agency director George Tenet that the risk of a war between India and Pakistan was the highest ever since 1971.

“I would not dispute the point raised by the CIA Director. It is a professional body and has its own means of making an assessment,” Mr Klebanov said.

Describing the India-Pakistan situation as serious, Mr Klebanov said: “I absolutely agree when India tells Pakistan that something needs to be done at the ground level against terrorists. Pakistan needs to punish them, and, if necessary, hand them over to India.”

He added, “Russia appreciates the restraint shown by India so far but at the same time feels that recourse of military action is not the only solution.”

Mr Klebanov’s comments came quick on the heels of a similar warning by US Secretary of State Colin Powell who urged both countries to desist from making inflammatory remarks about each other and urged them to work instead to ease the military standoff.

But neither the Russian nor the American warning appeared to be finding a ready audience in India where Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Home Minister Lal Krishan Advani have been on an election trail, slamming Pakistan at every given opportunity.

Mr Vajpayee slammed Pakistan’s protests about human rights abuses by Indian security forces in Kashmir.

Mr Advani told a separate election meeting that he found “General Musharraf’s recent offer of moral and political support to the so-called freedom fighters a support to terrorism”.

Elsewhere Parliament Minister Pramod Mahajan was wondering why India had been told to be patient with Pakistan when the US and Israel never showed similar patience in dealing with their own problems.

Such was the quest to target Pakistan that the ruling BJP described opposition leader Sonia Gandhi as a sympathizer of terrorists because she was not raising the standoff with Pakistan as a poll issue.

“The Congress is looking for Muslim votes,” BJP spokesman Vijay Malhotra remarked, adding that Ms Gandhi was opposing a ban on some Muslim fundamentalist parties and was demoralizing the army with her claims of corruption in defence deals.

Mr Klebanov is in India to sign one such deal and both countries are believed to be on the verge of signing a huge arms agreements that centres around the free transfer of the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, together with the sale of billions of dollars of weaponry that go with it.

Mr Kelbanov and Indian Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha signed a wide-ranging trade and economic protocol. The protocol envisages the joint development of a 100-seater multi-purpose transport aircraft and boosting cooperation in oil exploration.

The aircraft, to be produced and marketed jointly, is likely to be based on the Russian IL-214 design and will be developed in three versions — military transport, passenger and cargo.