India and Pakistan warned by US

India says a new deployment will be completed in days

The United States is mounting maximum diplomatic effort to try to defuse escalating tensions between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan.

Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Washington's view had been expressed carefully and clearly, with telephone calls from both President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell.

We have clearly made the interests we have in this subject known to both sides very carefully and with clarity

Donald Rumsfeld
US Defence Secretary

Correspondents say America's concern is both to prevent another India-Pakistan war, and to stop the situation detracting from its own war against terror.

Mr Rumsfeld's words came after Delhi and Islamabad announced tit-for-tat sanctions against one another.

UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he was "deeply concerned" about the situation and called on both countries to work together to resolve their differences.

Tensions between the two neighbours have risen dramatically since a suicide attack on the Indian parliament two weeks ago, which Delhi alleges was backed by Pakistani intelligence.

Pakistan denies any involvement.

Tough words

India was the first to impose the punitive measures, including a ban from 1 January on Pakistan's national airline from flying in Indian air space and a reduction by half of India's diplomatic staff in Islamabad and Pakistan's diplomats in Delhi.

Mutual sanctions

Bans on national airlines flying over each others' airspace

Diplomatic missions slashed by half

Movements of diplomats confined to capital cities

Pakistan retaliated almost immediately, with similar restrictions.

The Indian sanctions were aimed at forcing Pakistan to take action against two Kashmir militant groups, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, blamed for a suicide attack on India's parliament two weeks ago.

Pakistan has already frozen the groups' assets and arrested the founder of the Jaish group, but Delhi is demanding that they be shut down for good.

"This is something we're keeping our eye on very carefully," Mr Rumsfeld told reporters.

"We have clearly made the interests we have in this subject known to both sides very carefully and with clarity."

The BBC's Jon Leyne in Washington says the phraseology implies tough words from Washington.

US fears

India and Pakistan have been building up forces along their borders, and the US is concerned that Pakistani troops currently guarding the Afghan border may be redeployed.

The US does not want Pakistan to move troops from the Afghan border

"They have not yet moved forces from the Afghan border, and that is very encouraging to us, because it would be a big disappointment to us," Mr Rumsfeld said.

"They must have seven or eight, nine battalions along the Pakistan-Afghan border, which is clearly a deterrent to people trying to come across, trying to escape from Afghanistan."

But, Mr Rumsfeld added, there were concerns that if the situation escalated it could affect American rights to fly Pakistani airspace.

"That would be difficult for us and unfortunate," he said.

'Fully prepared'

India's Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh said the government was taking the measures because of Pakistan's attempts to "dupe" the international community with "cosmetic measures and non-measures" against militant groups operating in its territory.

Singh: India is fully prepared

Mr Singh also said talks with Pakistan were currently out of the question.

Pakistan said it was concerned at the turn of events, but said it had to respond in kind.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since independence, but Mr Singh also tried to play down fears of war.

"There is nothing for you to worry about... we are fully prepared," he said.

Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes said earlier that a new deployment of Indian troops along the entire border with Pakistan would be complete in the next few days.

Pakistani military spokesman General Rashid Quereshi said that his country's armed forces had also taken what he termed appropriate measures.

Sporadic clashes have intensified along their common border amid a massive build-up of troops, missiles and fighter aircraft.