US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell headed for New Delhi today aiming to avert a war between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan while maintaining the momentum of the US campaign against terrorism.
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Mr Colin Powell
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Mr Powell, flying in from Islamabad after a brief trip to Afghanistan, was expected to repeat a call to India and Pakistan to work together to fight terror, not each other.
His aim, he said in Islamabad yesterday, was to see if both sides believed they could improve diplomatic ties as a prelude to rolling back a massive military build-up.
Close to a million men are massed on the border in a crisis triggered by an attack on the Indian parliament last month, blamed by New Delhi on Pakistan-based Kashmiri separatists.
Despite a pledge by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to curb Islamic militants, India says its troops will stay until the former army commando translates that pledge into action.
Trying to find any common ground between India and Pakistan, particularly over Kashmir - the cause of two of the three wars between the neighbours since independence in 1947 - would be entering a diplomatic minefield.
Mr Powell, due in India around 6.30 p.m. (1 p.m. Irish time), nearly started a diplomatic row on his last trip in October by implying Kashmir was the central issue between India and Pakistan.
New Delhi says the central issue is Pakistan's support for militants, what it calls cross-border terrorism. This time in Islamabad, Mr Powell said Kashmir was one such issue between them.