NEW DELHI, Nov 27: Indian forces were put on a high alert on Tuesday for a possible assignment to help crush a Maoist insurgency in Nepal after the prime ministers of the two countries discussed the widening conflict which was believed to be to spilling across their porous border into a clutch of Indian states.

Diplomats said the sudden upsurge in violence that led to the declaration of a state of emergency in the landlocked Himalayan kingdom on Monday would almost certainly force the postponement of the summit of the seven-member South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), scheduled to begin in Kathmandu on Jan 4.

In a signal that could mean serious trouble for a host of powerful Maoist groups operating in large parts of India, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee told parliament on Tuesday that terrorism was not an expression of religious extremism alone but also stemmed from economically rooted ideologies.

Indian officials said Nepali Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba had briefed Vajpayee about the state of emergency imposed by King Gyanendra, and his recommendation to use the army for the first time to hunt down Maoist rebels, fighting since 1996 to abolish the monarchy and establish a socialist republic in Nepal.

Deuba’s cabinet declared a state of emergency after a devastating rebel attack on Sunday night killed 34 soldiers, policemen and officials in Solukhumbu village, 200 kilometres northeast of Kathmandu.

The government said its forces had repulsed the attack and killed at least 60 rebels.

Indian officials said security forces from both countries were “in close and continuing contact”, but added they would not be able to give the current operational details of India’s involvement in the containment of the rebellion.

One Indian official informed reporters that 60 out of Nepal’s 75 districts were affected by the Maoist insurgency.

“Obviously I cannot talk about operational details even if that help has been sought,” the official said, declining to give details of the talks between Deuba and Vajpayee.

“As you know, we have close and continuing contacts between the security forces on either side of border. It’s connected with border management. It’s connected with the maintenance of law and order, peace and stability and in dealing with insurgencies,” an official said.

The official said Deuba called Vajpayee on Monday and had “informed him about the developments in Nepal, about the decision to impose the emergency”.

Mr Vajpayee expressed understanding of the measures. “India has expressed concern about the setback to the dialogue that had resulted from the violent upsurge in Nepal,” an Indian foreign ministry official told reporters. “We have also condemned the recourse to violence for the achievement of political and ideological objectives,” the official said.

India is officially maintaining that the Saarc summit is on as scheduled, but Vajpayee hinted in the Rajya Sabha that it was not absolutely certain that it would be held.

He also played down prospects of a meeting in Kathmandu with President Pervez Musharraf, saying if it happened it would be “chaltey chaltey” (a casual affair).

FALLOUT ON INDIA: Indicating that the anti-Maoist operations could be launched in India on a large scale, the official said: “The Maoists in Bihar, the People’s War Group in Andhra Pradesh, these groups have all been banned by the Indian government.