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To: Cactus Jack who wrote (52477)	5/31/2002 2:08:55 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 65232

Wolfowitz Urges India and Pakistan to Avert War Filed at 1:11 a.m. ET SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said on Friday that war between India and Pakistan would be devastating and also set back much improved relations between Washington and the South Asian foes. ``It would be tragic to see both of these positive opportunities destroyed by a war that would be devastating for everybody,'' he told a news conference in Singapore, where he is attending a regional security conference. The U.S., Britain and other nations working feverishly to ease tension between the nuclear-armed neighbors face the challenge of averting wholesale conflict while keeping the U.S.-led war on terror on track in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Wolfowitz will meet India's Defense Minister George Fernandes on Friday afternoon, while Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage are due to fly to South Asia next week to also try to cool the threat of war. The latest tension in Kashmir -- including heavy exchanges of artillery and small arms fire -- began in December after a raid on the Indian parliament which New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based militants. New Delhi has demanded that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf observe a pledge in January to stop the infiltration of militants into the Indian zone. ``We're very much opposed to cross border terrorism,'' Wolfowitz said, echoing the views of President Bush who on Thursday said Musharraf ``must live up to his word.'' The two countries already have some one million soldiers massed on their border and Pakistan has said it is considering shifting some troops from its Afghan frontier toward the east to bolster its forces facing India. U.S. officials have expressed concern at that prospect, fearing the hunt for pockets of al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan and the rugged tribal regions of Pakistan would be compromised. Washington blames al Qaeda for the September 11 attacks on the United States and has warned that the network led by Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden may be planning a new wave of terror. Kashmir has been the flashpoint for two of three wars the neighbors have fought since 1947 when Britain split the subcontinent into Islamic Pakistan and largely Hindu India.