NEW DELHI, Feb 19: India said on Tuesday it did not plan to pull back its troops from the Pakistan border until Islamabad complied with key conditions set by New Delhi.

The remarks by Defence Minister George Fernandes came at a news conference here even as Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee warned Pakistan at an election rally in Varanasi against fomenting trouble inside India, saying New Delhi too had the capability to stir up things for Islamabad if it so wished.

Tuesday’s hawkish remarks appeared to stem from two distinct considerations — bad poll forecasts for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in the key state of Uttar Pradesh, and the beginning of the parliament’s budget session next week when the government faces a tough call in a generally dismal year for the economy, which has been further bruised by a clutch of financial scandals in defence deals.

India has asked Pakistan to repatriate more than a dozen alleged criminals and terrorists it says are sheltered by Islamabad, and has set other conditions too to resume normal ties, that include a complete cessation of cross-border raids by militants in Kashmir.

In an indication of the continuing approach towards its neighbour, New Delhi on Tuesday mounted more pressure on Islamabad when the foreign ministry summoned Pakistan’s Deputy High Commissioner Jaleel Abbas Jilani, seeking details of the reported confessions by Sheikh Omar Saeed in which he has claimed a role in the Dec 13 attack on the Parliament House and in the subsequent attack on the American Center in Kolkata.

Ruling out any immediate pullback of troops from the border till Islamabad fulfilled New Delhi’s conditions, Fernandes sought to dispel fears that prolonged forward deployment was leading to fatigue setting in among the forces.

“The forces have been moved to the border in a certain situation when India had set some conditions, which have not yet been fulfilled. The troops will remain there till these are fulfilled and a final decision is reached,” Fernandes told reporters on the sidelines of a defence exhibition which he inaugurated.

“I had a wide interaction with the troops and the nation should rest assured that their morale is on top and they are rearing to meet any exigencies,” Fernandes said.

The PTI quoted Vajpayee as warning Islamabad that India could also create “internal trouble” in Pakistan but was not doing so, “as this was not its policy or style”.

Declaring that there would be no compromise in fighting terrorism, Vajpayee said there was no truth in Pakistan’s claim that it was not supporting terrorism in India.

“The Pakistan President says his country is part of the international campaign against terrorism but his policy as regards India is different,” Vajpayee told the rally in Varanasi.

Ruling out early talks with Pakistan, the Prime Minister said India was not against dialogue but “if talks are going to end in an attack, then what is the use of such an exercise”.

Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, Fernandes said that military ties with Washington were on the upswing and the two countries had worked out a regular schedule of joint exercises of all three services and United States promising to provide India with the hitherto banned hi-tech weapon systems.

“We are now looking at getting the technology we need from the United States,” Fernandes said, as he assured that the armed forces would “never be starved for funds” for its modernization and acquisition plans.

On persistent queries about Rs13,000 crore of defence capital outlay remaining unspent, Fernandes said that though he was unable to quantify how much of it would be spent by the end of the financial year “there were some major agreements in the pipeline and I hope that a major part of the unspent money will be utilized”.

He, however, said there had been no progress in the deal for the acquisition of the British Aerospace Hawk Advanced Jet Trainers for the Indian Air Force.