Indian MPs condemn Pakistan

The Jammu attack has caused outrage in India

India's parliament has stopped short of announcing a formal military response against Pakistan for the militant attack this week on an army camp in Indian-administered Kashmir.

It is no time for rhetoric or emotions

Home Minister LK Advani

But a marathon debate on Friday ended with a resolution unanimously condemning the "continuing acts of terrorism encouraged by Pakistan".

There have been widespread calls in India for retaliation against Pakistan, which Delhi says backs the separatists blamed for the attack in Jammu - the bloodiest in Kashmir since last October.

The debate coincided with an eruption of violence in Kashmir following Tuesday's massacre, which claimed 34 lives.

The two sides exchanged their heaviest fire in six months across their border overnight, and a bomb blast in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-administered Kashmir, killed two civilians.

Consultations

India's hawkish Home Minister, LK Advani, told parliament that the government would consider all the options before arriving at a decisive strategy.

Advani: India will 'do its duty'

His speech to the lower house followed a meeting on Thursday of senior politicians and defence officials to draw up a response to the attack on the Kaluchak army camp in Jammu.

"It is no time for rhetoric or emotions and the government has to decide after weighing all pros and cons and after consultations with the armed forces," he told parliament.

"But this is not the place to disclose strategies."

The house ended the session with a resolution condemning Pakistan for its alleged support of cross-border Islamic militants, the first of its kind.

The resolution was supported across party lines,

Pakistan has denied any involvement in the Jammu attack.

Bomb

Shortly before Mr Advani was due to speak, a bomb exploded near the police headquarters building in Srinagar.

Reports said two civilians were killed and at least 15 people were injured, including two policemen.

Correspondents say the blast was caused by a landmine strapped to a bicycle.

The explosion followed heavy exchanges of fire between the two sides along their common border.

Pakistani officials said the most intense shelling took place along the Line of Control, which divides disputed Kashmir.

They said at least four Pakistani civilians were killed in one border village.

Indian police said four people, including one child, were killed in heavy gunfire along the international border in the Jammu region prompting more than 3,000 people to flee their homes.

More than 35,000 people have been killed in the region since Muslim militants launched an insurgency in 1989.

India accuses Pakistan of funding and training the militants. Islamabad denies the charge, but says it extends moral and diplomatic support to what it describes as Kashmir's freedom fighters.

Fears of escalation

Both sides have deployed hundreds of thousands of troops along the border since militants launched a grenade attack on the Indian parliament in December.

There have been calls for a military response

The United States has been urging caution and restraint on both sides, fearing that tension over Kashmir could erupt into direct fighting between the two nuclear neighbours.

A spokesman for Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf told the Associated Press that Islamabad would not be intimidated by Delhi.

"If India resorts to threats... to bully Pakistan, then Pakistan... will do everything in its power to protect itself," General Rashid Qureshi was quoted as saying.

Pakistan has in the past not ruled out the use of nuclear weapons.

India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since independence from Britain in 1947.