NEW DELHI, India _ President Bush called the leaders of India and Pakistan on Wednesday as the United States geared up its diplomatic drive to prevent a war in one of the world's most dangerous flashpoints.

Bush told Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf "to take steps that will ease tensions in the region and reduce the risk of war," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.

"The president reiterated to President Musharraf that the United States expects Pakistan to live up to the commitment to end all support for terrorism. The president emphasized to Prime Minister Vajpayee the need for India to respond with de-escalatory steps. To both leaders, the President stressed the need to choose the path of diplomacy," Fleischer said.

India and Pakistan take entirely different positions on a key issue of the dispute _ whether Pakistan has stopped militants from infiltrating into the Indian-held side of the disputed territory of Kashmir to attack Indians and Kashmiris. India has said it will not hold talks until the infiltrations stop. Pakistan asserts that already has happened.

One million troops backed with armor and artillery have faced off on the border since December, when India blamed Pakistan for a terrorist attack on the Indian parliament. The two sides have exchanged artillery and machine gun fire daily in recent weeks along the Line of Control, the militarized boundary separating India- and Pakistan-controlled parts of Kashmir. India claims terrorist camps operate on the Pakistan side.

Militant groups in Kashmir on the Indian side have been fighting for independence from New Delhi for 12 years, claiming massive human rights violations and repression by the Hindu-dominated government against the Muslim majority. India accuses Pakistan of arming and training the guerrillas to wage war on its behalf. Pakistan denies arming and training the guerrillas but says it provides them with political and moral support.

A war now would be the first since India and Pakistan acquired nuclear weapons. The two countries have fought three wars since they became independent in 1947.

Bush made the phone calls to the two leaders ahead of Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage's scheduled meetings with Musharraf in Islamabad on Thursday and later with Vajpayee in New Delhi. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was following him within a few days. Their diplomacy followed efforts by the leaders of Russia, China, Britain and other countries to prevent a war.

U.S. officials have said they have seen indications Musharraf was moving to stop the militants, but they continued to warn about how serious the tensions were.

The State Department on Wednesday issued new travel warnings to Americans in India and Pakistan, citing tensions at "serious levels." The government warned Americans not to travel to India and Pakistan and strongly urged those already in the two countries to leave. There are about 60,000 Americans in India and several thousand in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, India's prime minister returned home on Wednesday from a conference in Kazakhstan, where he and Musharraf failed even to shake hands or say hello. Before leaving, he accused Musharraf of failing to keep his promise to stop cross-border infiltration by Islamic militants into the Indian-controlled side of Kashmir.

Vajpayee said 3,000 militants were in camps inside Pakistan's part of Kashmir waiting to attack India.

"As per our information, infiltration is happening even now," he said. "The reports reaching us here from Kashmir . . . show that Pakistan is not keeping its word."

"We have assured that there is not cross-border activity," Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Azis Ahmed Khan said earlier this week in Islamabad. "We are ready for verification of our claim. That is about all we can do."

The prevailing sentiment in Pakistan is that the West has unfairly pressured Pakistan without making any demands on India. Strong domestic support for the Kashmiri cause makes it politically difficult for Musharraf to grant any new concessions without a conciliatory move by India, Pakistani analysts say.

Musharraf has come under fire from some militant Islamic and Kashmiri groups for taking a public stance against cross-border activity, and more moderate groups have joined them in calls this week for Pakistan to resist international pressure for any further shifts in its Kashmir policy.

The New Delhi government also faces domestic pressures from hard-liners to not make concessions.

Amitabh Mattoo, a professor of disarmament studies at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, said vague assurances by Musharraf of a halt in infiltrations would not be enough.

Mattoo, an adviser to the Indian government, said Musharraf must renounce terrorism in Kashmir more convincingly, must sever all links between terrorist groups and Pakistan's intelligence agency, and must destroy the training camps.

"He cannot just switch off the tap," Mattoo said. "He must drain the reservoir and dismantle the pipes."

Only then, he added, would India's government be inclined to withdraw its troops from the border and blame any future terrorist attacks on "rogue elements" and "independent actors" not under the Pakistan government's control.

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(Dorgan reported from New Delhi, Moritsugu from Islamabad.)

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(c) 2002, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

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