Indian officials insist tens of thousands of troops deployed on the Pakistan border will not be pulled back.

India has ruled out any immediate prospect of talks with Pakistan.

India’s prime minister snubbed Pakistan’s president and shrugged off his plea for dialogue today, apparently ending all possibility of talks between the nuclear-armed nations whose armies are on high alert.

Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers are to sit at the same table for the first time since the two countries came close to war.

Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers will sit at the same table tomorrow for the first time since the dispute over Islamic militant attacks on India’s Parliament pushed the nuclear neighbours to the brink of war.

Hopes that another war between India and Pakistan can be averted rose today, with increasing signs that the country’s leaders will meet at an Asian summit in Nepal this week.

India has delivered to Pakistan a list of 20 other suspected terrorists it wants arrested and handed over.

India and Pakistan have moved ever closer to war as the rival armies shelled each other in Kashmir and thousands of border villagers were evacuated.

The US, seeking to calm rising tensions, wants nuclear rivals India and Pakistan to try to resolve their differences at a conference in Nepal next week, rather than on the battlefield.

Elite Indian strike forces have moved closer to Pakistan’s border amid escalating tensions, following a suicide attack on India’s Parliament, the defence minister said.

An anxious world welcomed the inauguration of Afghanistan’s interim government as a hopeful first step toward an elusive peace, with some countries backing their applause today with pledges for economic aid and renewed diplomatic ties.

India put its army on high alert today as it decided how to respond to the terrorist attack on parliament, which it blames on Islamic militant groups backed by Pakistan.

The Indian government has demanded that Pakistan crack down on two Kashmir militant groups, one of which it has blamed for yesterday’s attack on the parliament building in New Delhi.

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf today said his country will cooperate with United States military efforts in neighbouring Afghanistan as long as it takes for the operation to be successful.

Tough talk over the disputed Kashmir province escalated and security was tightened today, the eve of a landmark summit between India and Pakistan.

India said today it would work hard to achieve peace with Pakistan during a visit by its military ruler but blamed its neighbour for fuelling the Islamic rebellion in the disputed province of Kashmir.

Pakistan today responded ‘‘in a positive spirit’’ to India’s offer for peace talks, but at the same time denounced its neighbour for ending a ceasefire in the disputed Kashmir region.

India today ended a six month military ceasefire in Kashmir and invited Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf for peace talks to end five decades of hostility there.