Pakistan helped avert war - Indian PM

The Indian prime minister said Pakistan’s guarantees - not pressure from the United States - helped avert a war with its longtime South Asian rival, a newspaper reported today.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee indicated that New Delhi had given up the option of an armed conflict with Pakistan after a tense, six-month face-off in which one million soldiers of the nuclear-armed neighbours have been deployed along the border.

India says Pakistan backs Islamic guerrillas who cross the Kashmir frontier to carry out bombings and armed assaults on civilians and security forces in Indian territory.

Islamabad says it gives only moral and diplomatic support to the rebels, who are fighting for Kashmir’s independence or merger with Muslim-majority Pakistan.

‘‘If Pakistan had not agreed to end infiltration, and America had not conveyed that guarantee to India, then war would not have been averted,’’ Vajpayee told Dainik Jagran, one of India’s largest selling newspapers.

‘‘The belief that India gave up the option of war under American pressure is totally wrong,’’ Vajpayee said in his first detailed comments on the current crisis in which he declared "victory without war".

On the border, no incident of shelling or mortar fire was reported for the second straight day today, indicating the easing of the situation that seemed to have brought the hostile neighbours close to their fourth war. However, sporadic small arms fire continued between rival soldiers, as it has for years.

Kashmir has been at the core of two of the three was India and Pakistan have fought since their independence from Britain in 1947. More than 60,000 people have been killed in the 12-year insurgency.