India cool over Pakistan talks

India says its troop deployments are 'more or less complete'

Indian officials say they have no immediate plans for talks with Pakistan despite the fears of war between the two nuclear powers.

"No meeting is planned with Pakistan at any level," a spokesman for Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee told reporters on Tuesday.

He was speaking in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, where Mr Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf are to attend a regional summit later this week.

Pakistan said earlier that India was continuing a build-up of its forces on their common border following last month's attack on the Indian parliament in which 14 people died.

The BBC South Asia correspondent says there is little sign of progress in what is one of the worst crises for many years between Delhi and Islamabad.

Blair's diplomatic mission

India says the attack on its parliament was carried out by two Pakistani militant groups, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, supported by the Pakistani intelligence service.

Pakistani police have been arresting militants

Reports from Pakistan say about 100 members of the two groups have now been arrested.

Although India has described the arrest of the militants as a "step in the right direction", it wants more action.

But Pakistan on Tuesday rejected India's demand that it hand over 20 of the militants, saying it had seen no evidence of their guilt.

Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is expected to urge India and Pakistan to pull back from the brink of war during a diplomatic mission to the region to begin within the next week.

He is expected to meet Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee before travelling on to meet Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.

Mr Vajpayee said in a New Year's Day address to the Indian people that his country was willing to go "more than halfway" to resolve its current problems with Pakistan.

But he warned that Pakistan had to shed its "anti-India mentality and take effective steps to stop cross-border terrorism".

Diplomats took some comfort from the decision of the two nations on Tuesday to renew their commitment not to attack each others' nuclear installations.

'Explosive'

The situation on the two countries' long common border remains tense.

"All along the border there is a continuing Indian military build-up and concentration of forces far in excess of what we have seen in the past," Pakistani military spokesman Major General Rashid Qureshi was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

An army official in Pakistani-administered Kashmir described the situation as "still highly explosive and dangerous".

"Any small incident could lead to the situation becoming out of control," the official told Reuters news agency.

India denies any further build-up, saying its troop deployments are "more or less complete".

Leaders detained

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since independence in 1947, two of them over Kashmir.

Vajpayee may meet the Pakistani leader in Nepal this week

Pakistan has come under international pressure in recent days to crack down on militant groups active in Kashmir.

A spokesman for the Lashkar-e-Toiba group, Yahya Mujahid, told the AFP news agency that about 100 officials and activists from the two militant groups had been detained so far.

Those under arrest include the leaders of both groups.

The United States and the United Nations have praised Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

"He's cracking down hard, and I appreciate his efforts. Terror is terror and the fact that the Pakistani president is after the terrorists is a good sign," said President George W Bush.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan also hailed "the determined law enforcement action taken by the Pakistani authorities".

Shelling

As Pakistan took measures to comply with Delhi's demands, Indian forces kept up the pressure by shelling across the Line of Control in Kashmir.

India does not want war, but we have a sovereign right to defend ourselves

Indian PM Atal Behari Vajpayee

Indian officials said their security forces had destroyed at least 12 Pakistani bunkers and killed 10 Pakistani soldiers in retaliatory gunfire.

But a Pakistan army spokesman denied there had been casualties or damage.

The two countries have imposed sanctions against one another, including banning commercial overflights and reducing diplomatic representation in their respective capitals.