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US pressed India to lift overflight ban

India lifted the ban on Pakistan International Airlines overflights under relentless pressure from the United States, a senior government official said on Friday.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell, his deputy Richard Armitage and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had pressed India to allow Pakistani commercial aircraft to use its airspace, he said.

President George W Bush also spoken to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee urging him to defuse tensions with Pakistan.

However, India did not accord landing permission to PIA.

"Our experience is that the flights restriction pertaining to Pakistani commercial aircraft has resulted in the simultaneous decrease in the activities of the Inter-Services Intelligence operatives flying down from Pakistan. The government wants to keep it that way," he told rediff.com

"Whatever concessions were to be made have been made. There will be no further concessions," he said.

The official said the government was aware that despite Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's word to the US that infiltration would stop, it was continuing.

No civil aviation official was willing to comment on the issue.

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