India suggests joint patrols in Kashmir

Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said today that India would consider joint monitoring of the disputed Kashmir border with its long-time rival Pakistan.

In what could be a major step to ease tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours, Vajpayee said India and Pakistan should work together to patrol the Kashmir border and verify Islamic militants were no longer crossing into Indian-controlled Kashmir to launch attacks.

‘‘Joint patrolling can be held by India and Pakistan,’’ Vajpayee said in a news conference in Altmaty, Kazakhstan, that was shown live on Indian television.

‘‘There can be joint verification, but there is no need for third-party verification.’’

Vajpayee was referring to reports that Britain and the United States had offered to help monitor the Line of Control that divides the Himalayan province between the south Asian neighbours.

India and Pakistan have been on a war footing since December with one million troops along their frontier. The international community has been scrambling to avert a potential fourth war between the two nations as fears of a nuclear confrontation have escalated.

‘‘We want to move away from a path of confrontation to a path of co-operation,’’ Vajpayee told the news conference that was for Indian media only.

The prime minister spoke just before leaving the capital of Kazakhstan, where he attended an Asian security conference with Pakistan’s President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Despite the Pakistani military leader’s calls for dialogue, Vajpayee declined to talk to his counterpart during the summit - India has insisted that dialogue will resume only after cross-border terrorism has ended