U.K. diplomacy seeks Indo-Pak restraint

LONDON, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Senior British officials on Monday kept diplomatic pressure on India and Pakistan to exercise restraint in their escalating military confrontation.

Officials told United Press International the situation was under constant review but declined comment on reports that Prime Minister Tony Blair was contemplating a quick diplomatic trip to the region.

Blair's spokesmen said the prime minister was concerned about the deterioration in relations between the two countries and pointed out his warning Sunday that the escalation would serve no interests.

A Foreign Office spokesman said Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was monitoring the situation and had been in touch with counterparts in both countries.

Asian diplomats said they were waiting to hear confirmation from Blair about the planned visit and welcomed Britain's interest in reducing tensions between the two countries.

On Sunday, Blair discussed the India-Pakistan crisis with U.S. President George Bush in a 15-minute telephone conversation, a spokesman for the prime minister's office said.

Britain has made clear that while it applauds Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's tough stand against terrorism it wants more action from Islamabad. "We welcome the fact that Pakistan, very swiftly after the attack on the Indian Parliament, took steps recently against the terrorist groups operating from its territory," a spokesman said.

"We will continue to urge President Musharraf to continue to crack down on these terrorist groups with resolve and determination."

Britain has more than 2 million people of South Asian -- Indian, Pakistan or Bangladesh -- origin, many of them British citizens. The diplomatic efforts are aimed at minimizing the risks of India-Pakistan tensions spilling over into British communities, already fraught over the Afghanistan war.

The Times newspaper in an editorial called for "strong U.S. diplomacy" to avert a war between "Hindu-dominated India and mainly Muslim Pakistan, nuclear-powered sibling states whose rivalry is so intense that they have fought three times in a half-century of independence."

It said: "The sub-continent has suffered from the fitful flirtatiousness of the big powers since independence. During the Cold War, India's friendly ties with the Soviet Union were counterbalanced by a close U.S.-Pakistani relationship."

That shifted in the 1990s, as U.S. ties with India flourished while Pakistan faced political instability and financial problems.

Although Bush has telephoned both Indian and Pakistani leaders as part of the diplomatic effort, the newspaper said, he needs to do more. "The need for regional stability around Afghanistan means that all its neighbors must continue to be part of Washington's long-term planning."

The Times said, "It is in America's own interests to ensure that Pakistan does not shift its troops from today's Afghan front to a future Indian front. The time has never been riper for strong U.S. diplomacy in the subcontinent."

Times columnist William Rees-Mogg said an India-Pakistan would hand suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden a victory and would be a world disaster.

He said, "India is the second largest nation on earth, with a billion people, the dominant power of the subcontinent. Pakistan is not so large, or so powerful, but there are a billion Muslims in the world, almost all of whom might regard an Indian attack on Pakistan as an attack on Islam."

He said, "The inflamed state of the world community of Islam makes the India-Pakistan conflict intensely dangerous" as it was "on the verge of taking well over a billion people to war."

He said a war would also signal the success of Osama bin Laden's strategy "with or without bin Laden. His strategy was to use terror to create a general state of war between Islam and the major powers by undermining the West and radicalizing the Muslims."

Mogg said no one foresaw that the Sept. 11 attack on the United States could lead to a war over Kashmir. "At present, it seems almost impossible to bridge the anger of India and the resentment of Pakistan," he said. "Yet a war between these two powers would be a world disaster. The terrorists want war; they should not be given what they want."