WASHINGTON, Oct 3: The Bush administration has played a key role in brining India and Pakistan from the brinks of a nuclear war two years ago to peace talks in New York last week, says US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

In a statement released by the State Department on Sunday, Mr Powell also gives credit to Britain, France and China for averting a nuclear war in South Asia.

Two nations in the subcontinent were facing each other with huge armies, both nuclear-armed, Mr Powell told a gathering of US scholars at the Southern Center for International Studies, Atlanta, Georgia. Two years ago we worried about a nuclear war between the two of them.

He gave credit to President Bush's leadership for ending this tension but acknowledged that the United States could not have done it alone. My travels, the travels of my British colleagues, my French colleagues, the work we did with our Chinese friends all of us came together (to defuse) that moment of crisis, said Mr Powell.

The Bush administration, he said, stayed engaged with both India and Pakistan from a point where their nuclear-armed troops were facing each other to the point where, in the last few weeks, they have begun serious discussions. And last week in New York, the prime minister of India sat with the president of Pakistan and they talked together, said Mr Powell while explaining how successfully the Bush administration defused a potentially dangerous situation in South Asia.

Mr Powell recalled that after the talks, the two leaders came out and said: "We have difficult issues in front of us, but we will talk about these issues. We'll work towards solutions. We want peace in the subcontinent, not war.

The United States, said Mr Powell, played a major role in bringing about this change. It was our efforts, and the efforts of the partners that we work with - not alone, partners that we work with - that made that come about, he said.

Mr Powell said that on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York last week, President Bush met both Indian and Pakistani leaders to encourage them to continue the peace process begun in January this year.

While talking about bilateral relations between the United States and Pakistan, Mr Powell recalled how he telephoned President Pervez Musharraf two days after 9/11.

I called President Musharraf at President Bush's instruction, and said, Mr President, it's time for you to make a strategic choice as to whether you're going to be with the civilized world fighting terrorism or not, and if you are with us, then we have to do something about the Taliban and we need your help. And President Musharraf made that strategic choice and joined in our coalition. And much has happened in Pakistan since. Besides, Pakistan the United States is also working with former Soviet Union and Iran for fighting terrorism in Afghanistan, said Mr Powell.

He said the US forces took Afghanistan away from the Taliban and Al Qaeda and given it back to its own people. Mr Powell described Afghan President Hamid Karzai as a brave and courageous man who came forward to help his people after the defeat of the Taliban regime.

He was in great danger. People were after him. There was one telephone for the whole government. The financial system was so broken there were no banks, nothing was functioning, said Mr Powell while describing the difficulties the Karzai government faced.