US accused of ignoring Kashmir

Troops on both sides are on high alert

By Jon Leyne BBC correspondent in Washington

With Indian and Pakistani forces facing each other in an increasingly dangerous confrontation, the United States has stepped up its attempts to stop war breaking out.

But Washington has also been accused of taking its eye off the ball, during the recent months of tension in the sub-continent.

The situation is causing increasing concern to the American Secretary of State, Colin Powell.

"It's very dangerous," Mr Powell said in Moscow, where he is accompanying President Bush. "But I hope both sides realise they're at a critical point and we'll get them to step back."

Colin Powell visited the region in January

Mr Powell spoke to the Pakistan President General Musharraf twice on Thursday, and to the Indian foreign minister, Jaswant Singh, on Friday.

It has also been announced that his deputy, Richard Armitage, will travel to the region on 4 June.

"We remain very deeply engaged with the Indians and the Pakistanis and others, to try to reduce tensions, avoid an outbreak of fighting, and get the parties back into an atmosphere where they can pursue the absolutely vital dialogue that is necessary," explained State Department deputy spokesman Philip Reeker.

Crisis visit

Back in January, Colin Powell made a crisis visit to India and Pakistan to prevent them going to war following an attack on the Indian parliament building.

Mr Powell helped to defuse the immediate tension. But the two sides did not take up his proposals for a progressive de-escalation of the confrontation.

Musharraf: accused of reneging on promises to stop cross-border infiltration

Troops from both sides have remained at high alert on the border in the months since then.

Now Mr Powell is under attack in Washington - and India - for allowing General Musharraf to wriggle out of his commitment to control Kashmiri militants.

"The effect of Secretary of State Colin Powell's intense and successful diplomatic intervention last winter to ease tensions has been washed away by US inattention and failure to acknowledge Pakistan's subsequent backsliding," wrote the influential Washington Post columnist Jim Hoagland.

Regional tension

Mr Hoagland said the US intelligence community now accepted that General Musharraf allowed 50 to 60 camps in Kashmir, harbouring some 3,000 fighters, to come back to life in mid-March.

He said Pakistan had also reneged on efforts to stop cross-border infiltration and the incitement of violence by Islamic fundamentalists.

That interpretation is, however, disputed within the State Department. Officials insist they have been working hard, behind the scenes, to keep up the pressure on General Musharraf.

The aim now, as in January, is to defuse the immediate tension, then to work for a longer term de-escalation.

The United States wants India to give General Musharraf more time to deliver on the promises he made in his historic January speech.

Just as with Mr Powell's recent Middle East peace mission, the United States, and only the United States, has the power to calm troubled waters.

But preoccupied with the war on terror, and ever sensitive to domestic political pressures, the Bush administration lacks the energy to pursue the grander diplomatic initiatives that lead to real peace - at least in these delicate parts of the world.