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US hopes visiting dignitaries will keep tensions from erupting

As international efforts mount to defuse the Indo-Pak standoff, officials in Washington say the 'best bet' is to keep dignitaries visiting the two countries to talk peace so that neither side 'launches something'.

"As long as we keep a steady parade of dignitaries coming through to talk peace, neither side will launch something," a senior US official said.

"But it's only a bet," he emphasised.

As part of these efforts, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will be visiting India and Pakistan this week.

On Wednesday, US President George W Bush telephoned Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and asked them to 'choose the path of diplomacy'.

The New York Times on Wednesday quoted a senior White House official as saying that during his telephone conversation with the Pakistani president, Bush used 'very firm language' to demand that he immediately stop infiltration by Islamic militants across the border into India.

The calls were part of effort to urge both sides to listen to new proposals that two of Bush's envoys - Armitage and Rumsfeld - will be delivering in next few days, it said.

The back-to-back calls, the report said, made Bush a central, if reluctant, player in the 'dispute' - exactly the situation he finds himself in over the West Asia, it said.

Bush administration officials would not discuss the proposals in detail, but Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said they involved a series of steps based on an American assessment that each side 'may well be looking for ways to damp things down rather than see things escalate'.

"Only time will tell if they both understood the president's message," his spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

"We will do everything we can to prevent a war," he said.

Fleischer said the US president believes that an Indo-Pak war can be avoided. "That is exactly why he has been so deeply involved in the ongoing diplomacy," he said.

United Nations Security Council members have said they favour leaving the issue of Indo-Pak standoff to international diplomatic efforts without the involvement of the UN.

PTI

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