Blair bid to calm Asian crisis

Tony Blair today begins his visit to the powderkeg region of Central Asia where he will be heavily involved in efforts to calm the crisis between India and Pakistan.

The Prime Minister will hold talks in Bangladesh as well as having meetings with Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf.

The tricky diplomatic mission, although planned months ago, comes at a time when relations have plunged between the two nuclear powers.

They are now on the brink of war as the continuing violence claimed the lives of two Indian soldiers and a policeman.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has spoken to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan about the tensions in the region. A Foreign Office statement said they "had agreed on the need for both India and Pakistan to exercise restraint and to solve their differences through dialogue".

Mr Annan was also briefed by the Foreign Secretary about his recent conversations with the Pakistani and Indian foreign ministers.

The UN chief welcomed Mr Blair's trip to the region and "the opportunity provided to discuss the issue with both sides at this important time".

Earlier, both Mr Straw and Downing Street were at pains to stress the limits of what Mr Blair's visit might achieve. Mr Straw said there was no "Blair peace plan" that could be conveniently produced during the visit.

Meanwhile, two Indian soldiers were killed and seven wounded in an attack on a military post in Kashmir.

Militants, believed to be Islamic separatists, fired from a hilltop last night at the camp in Darhal, 124 miles north-west of Jammu, the winter capital of Jammu-Kashmir state, according to Indian police sources. Indian soldiers fired back, but the attackers fled.

The attack came hours after suspected militants set off two grenades near the state legislature building in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu-Kashmir state, killing a policeman, and wounding at least 24 other people. The Srinagar attack followed a suicide assault on the same building on 1 October, which killed 40.

The Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed, which is fighting India's control over two thirds of Kashmir, threatened fresh attacks on Indian security forces yesterday. Jaish claimed responsibility for the 1 October attack, but withdrew the claim later when it faced widespread condemnation from around the world.

Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, another Pakistan-based group fighting for Kashmir's separation from India, had also warned of such attacks. The group issued a statement to a local newspaper last week saying it would intensify attacks on police patrols and army bunkers in Srinagar. The group had also advised civilians to stay away from such places.

India has accused Lashkar and Jaish of plotting last month's assault on the Indian parliament in New Delhi, which killed 14 people, including five suicide attackers, and brought relations between India and Pakistan to crisis point.

The militant groups have since denied involvement, but India has demanded that Islamabad shut down their offices in Pakistan, freeze their assets, arrest their leaders and extradite them. Both sides have massed large numbers of troops on the border.

Prime minister Vajpayee yesterday used bellicose language to an audience in his Lucknow constituency in northern Uttar Pradesh, a populous state in India's Hindu heartland holding key assembly elections next month.

He said: "Whatever weapon is available, we will use it to defend ourselves. And if because of that weapon the attacker is defeated ... if he is killed, we should not be held responsible."

India tightened security at the Taj Mahal after officials said they had received an email from Lashkar threatening to blow up the landmark.

Lashkar and Jaish are among a dozen-odd Islamic groups fighting since 1989 for independence of Kashmir, or its merger with mostly Muslim Pakistan.

Earthquake rocks Afghanistan region
Cartoon! Cartoon!