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Politics : America Under Siege: The End of Innocence -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Richnorth who wrote (15989)	6/1/2002 3:17:30 PM
From: ChinuSFO	Respond to of 27666

India Plays Down War Fears Says 'No' again to Vajpayee-Musharraf Talks A top US defense official said war between India and Pakistan would be "somewhere between terrible and catastrophic," but India's defense minister played down the concerns, saying the situation was "stable." US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz met with Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes ahead of an international conference in Singapore where security experts and defense ministers will discuss fighting terrorism and arms proliferation in Asia. India is preparing to host US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld June 9 as part of further US efforts to defuse the conflict. Wolfowitz and a delegation of US congressmen attending the Singapore conference pleaded with Fernandes for restraint. Wolfowitz gave few details of his meeting with Fernandes, saying he did not want to risk a misstep during "an extremely sensitive period." "We believe that a war would be somewhere between terrible and catastrophic," Wolfowitz said he told Fernandes. Fernandes played down the concerns. "There isn't any change on the ground," Fernandes told The Associated Press. "The situation is stable." Fernandes also met with six members of the US Congress, who said he expressed strong emotions about the conflict. Fernandes told the lawmakers of Indian officials' "deep distrust of (Pakistani President Pervez) Musharraf on a personal level," said Sen. Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat. Pakistan Friday welcomed US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's upcoming visit to the region and said it hoped he would be able to persuade India to come to the negotiating table. "We welcome Mr. Rumsfeld's visit to the region. We will expect him to tell India to stop its belligerence and talk peace," foreign ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan told AFP. But India reiterated Friday that its prime minister will not meet with Pakistan's president at an Asian summit next week, although bilateral meetings are being arranged with a handful of other leaders. "I think the answer is no," R.M. Abhyankar, special secretary in India's foreign ministry, told reporters who asked if Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had any desire to meet with Musharraf during the June 3-5 summit. Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will meet separately with the summit's host, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, and probably with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the leaders of Tajikistan and China, said Abhyankar. The US State Department on Friday authorized the voluntary departure of all non-essential diplomats and their dependents from India, saying it could not rule out a worsening of the crisis with Pakistan. riyadhdaily.com.sa