Villagers flee India-Pakistan border

As fear of war looms residents are fleeing the area

Terrified villagers are fleeing the front line between India and Pakistan as the two countries mass troops and artillery along their shared border.

Until Pakistan is able to create a conducive climate by acting resolutely and meaningfully against terrorism, the outlook for such dialogue cannot be promising

Indian Foreign Ministry

The Indian army has ordered 20,000 people to evacuate from more than 40 border villages in Indian-administered Kashmir, while tanks, fighter jets and heavy artillery are moved into place.

In an attempt to ease the situation, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf says he is ready to meet Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee - but Delhi has rejected the offer.

"Until Pakistan is able to create a conducive climate by acting resolutely and meaningfully against terrorism, the outlook for such dialogue cannot be promising," a senior Foreign Ministry official told Reuters news agency.

Talks at a lower level, however, are not being completely ruled out.

US President George W Bush, meanwhile, said his administration is "working actively to bring some calm in the region to hopefully convince both sides to stop the escalation of force".

Tension mounts

The military build-up is the neighbours' biggest for almost 15 years.

The Taj Mahal is to be camouflaged, officials say

In the northern Indian city of Agra, officials said they were planning to camouflage the Taj Mahal, the famous 17th century marble monument to love, in case of Pakistani air attack.

A tourism official told Associated Press that tailors were stitching together more than 400 metres of cloth to cover the mausoleum's dome and its minarets.

Tensions between the nuclear rivals have been mounting since a suicide attack on the Indian parliament two weeks ago, which Delhi alleges was backed by the Pakistani intelligence service.

On Friday, two Indian civilians were killed and five wounded when Pakistani troops opened fire on the border in Kashmir, an Indian defence official said.

If confirmed, they would be the latest civilian casualties in border clashes which have occurred daily over the past two weeks.

At least 12 Indian soldiers were killed as they laid landmines on the border in the desert state of Rajasthan on Friday.

Talks offer

General Musharraf said he would be prepared to hold talks with the Indian prime minister at a regional summit in Nepal next week.

But he warned that both sides had to be looking for a way out of the dispute. "You can't clap with one hand," he told reporters in Islamabad.

Mr Vajpayee "must show willingness on his side and there will be willingness on our side", General Musharraf said.

Mutual sanctions

Direct transport links cut

Bans on national airlines flying over each others' airspace

Diplomatic missions slashed by half

Movements of diplomats confined to capital cities

Across Pakistan, troops have been putting up anti-aircraft guns.

Pakistani security officials earlier told the BBC they believe that 95% of the Indian air force is now in an offensive position - in addition to the existing heavy deployment of troops along the border.

Pakistani officials say the Indian deployment is even bigger than that witnessed during a brief conflict with militants in the Kargil sector of the disputed territory of Kashmir two years ago.

Pakistan's military spokesman, General Rashid Qureshi, said the nature of the Indian deployment suggested a desire for offensive action, and that India would find it difficult to back down.

Punitive measures

The BBC's Zaffar Abbas says Pakistani officials claim to have picked up indications of a possible Indian air strike on the night of 21 December, though this has not been independently verified.

People have been forced to return home

The two countries have announced a number of sanctions against each other.

In Delhi, there were emotional scenes at the bus station as the last bus left India for Pakistan before direct services between the two countries were cut.

Despite the measures, India says it will allow President Musharraf to fly through Indian airspace to attend the Nepal summit.

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

Asked whether he was prepared to move against the two groups, Mr Musharraf said: "We understand our responsibility. We know what we have to do."

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.

India's Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh has described the Pakistani actions as "cosmetic measures and non-measures".