NEW DELHI, Oct 7: US President George W. Bush spoke to Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee about the missile strikes on key Afghan cities on Sunday and set a visit to New Delhi by Secretary of State Gen Colin Powell in the third week of October, Indian news channels said.

They said Bush also promised to ban the Jaish-i-Mohammad militant group which India accuses of recent terror attacks in Srinagar and believes are linked to Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network.

It was not clear if Bush, who also spoke to French and Russian leaders about the strikes, called Vajpayee before or after the cruise missile attacks on Kandahar, Kabul and Jalalabad were launched from British and US ships in the region.

Powell’s visit to India is expected to be part of his tour of Pakistan and possibly other member-countries that are backing the US-led anti-terrorist coalition.

Two senior aides of the Indian prime minister had recently toured Washington and other key capitals to canvass support for New Delhi’s campaign against militancy in Kashmir.

Mr Vajpayee raised the issue with British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Saturday who condemned the Oct 1 suicide attack in Srinagar but kept silent on whether the international coalition against terrorism will help India deal with the terror in Kashmir.

By setting Gen Powell’s first visit to the region for later this month, Mr Bush has indicated that he expected to wrap up much of the initial softening of the Taliban regime with sustained air strikes by then.

Seeking to ease India’s worries over the warming ties between Pakistan and the United States, US Ambassador to New Delhi Robert Blackwill assured his hosts this week that Washington was “not going to ask India to pay a price for cooperation between the US and Pakistan. The US is going to take no action with respect to Pakistan which undermines India’s security.”

Mr Blackwill said on Friday the United States was trying to strengthen Islamabad for the global war against terrorism since Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf had “unconditionally” joined the international coalition. “It is a good thing that he (General Musharraf) has done and we think that along with other countries Pakistan has a crucial role to play in the war against terrorism,” the US envoy said.