Blair sold jets at Kashmir talks

Two thirds of the jets would be built in India

Tony Blair used a private meeting with his Indian counterpart to push the sale of British Hawk jets while urging peace with Pakistan, it has been confirmed.

The prime minister raised the deal - estimated to be worth £1bn - with Atal Behari Vajpayee at Chequers on Saturday as hundreds of thousands of troops remained at a stand-off in the disputed region of Kashmir.

Downing Street and the Foreign Office stressed the Hawks, made by Britain's biggest defence manufacturer BAE Systems, were training jets.

But they can easily be converted for combat, as has happened in Indonesia.

We make no apology for supporting a legitimate defence industry

Downing Street

And Mr Blair's intervention is likely to revive Labour unease over arms sales.

Officials stressed any deal would be subject to the usual "rigorous" controls.

But two thirds of the jets would be built in India by the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics company, according to The Guardian newspaper.

A Downing Street spokeswoman said: "We make no apology for supporting a legitimate defence industry."

Flashpoint

Kashmir, India's only Muslim majority state, has been a flashpoint of hostility between India and Pakistan for five decades.

Since 1947 the states have fought two of their three wars over the disputed Himalayan territory - the first in 1947-8, the second in 1965.

The state was placed under direct rule between 1990 and 1996 when Muslim insurgency was at its height.

Tensions have been rising again since December last year when India blamed Pakistan-based militants for an attack on the parliament in Delhi - a charge Pakistan has denied.

The crisis saw about one million troops being drawn up on the border, but on Wednesday the two nuclear powers began to withdraw troops in a massive de-escalation in tension.