'It is very clear that Pakistan (and) India cannot solve the problem as they have not done so for the last 50 years'
Britain has ordered up to 150 diplomatic staff to leave Pakistan after renewed threats to British interests and growing tension between India and Pakistan over the disputed territory of Kashmir.
The Indian Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, warned his frontline troops in the region to prepare for a "decisive battle" against Islamic insurgents inside Pakistan.
The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, has described the rising military tension between the two nuclear powers as a "very grave and serious situation", which had implications for the world if the dispute escalated into a full-scale war.
The British Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, yesterday announced the decision to withdraw the majority of diplomatic staff and their families with "immediate" effect after Britain received a number of bomb threats, including suicide bomb threats, and after the recent "security outrages" in Pakistan in which US and French citizens were killed.
The bomb threats are believed to come from al-Qaeda terrorists, who are thought to have fled to Pakistan following the defeat of Taliban forces in Afghanistan.
Mr Straw, who will visit India and Pakistan next week in an effort to defuse the tension, refused to confirm whether al- Qaeda had made a specific bomb threat. He said the security situation inside Pakistan was being carefully monitored. "There comes a point where the assessment tips the balance of decision," he said.
The number of British diplomatic staff attached to the High Commission in Islamabad will be cut from about 210 to 80. In the Deputy High Commission in Karachi it will be cut from 36 to 10.
The Foreign Office advised the 1,000 Britons living in Pakistan to leave. Tourists were told to avoid non-essential travel to the country.
Mr Straw refused, however, to criticise the Pakistan government, which has been accused of turning a blind eye to terrorists operating training bases inside Kashmir and Pakistan.
Asked during a press conference at the Foreign Office if Pakistan should do more to fight terrorism, Mr Straw said: "I don't make a criticism of the actions taken by the government of Pakistan."
In the Commons, Mr Blair urged both countries to pull back from the brink, insisting that he could not stress enough the dangers inherent in an Indian-Pakistani conflict.
"I do urge both countries and the leadership of both countries to pause and reflect before taking action that could plunge not just their countries into conflict, but the wider region, with implications for the whole of the world," Mr Blair said during Prime Minister's Question Time as India announced it was moving warships to the Arabian Sea, closer to the Pakistani coast.
"It is essential, in the end, both that Pakistan stops support for any form of terrorism whatever in Kashmir or anywhere else in the region, and at the same time that India is prepared to offer a proper system of dialogue to resolve all issues, including disputes over Kashmir," he said.
Earlier, Pakistan's High Commissioner in London, Mr Abdul Kader Jaffer, called on the international community to help resolve the dispute.
"It is very clear that Pakistan, India, cannot solve the problem as they have not done so for the last 50 years. We need friends like the United States, the UK, European Union, to get together and make us, both leaderships, sit down and find a solution."