Bush sends Rumsfeld to ease Indian-Pakistani tensions

US President George W Bush has announced plans to send his Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, to India and Pakistan in an effort to reduce tensions between the two bitter enemies.

Between them, the two nuclear-armed countries have massed around one million soldiers on their shared border.

The stand-off was sparked when Islamic militants fighting for independent in Indian-ruled Kashmir attacked the parliament building in New Delhi last December, killing 14 people.

India accuses Pakistan of financing, training, arming and harbouring the Kashmiri militants, but the Pakistani authorities reject the charges.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has already said he will do his best to stop militants from crossing into Kashmir from Pakistan.