India offers joint border patrols in Kashmir

India's Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said today that his country would consider joint monitoring of the disputed Kashmir border with rival Pakistan.

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

"Joint patrolling can be held by India and Pakistan," he told a news conference in Kazakhstan, that was shown live on Indian television. "There can be joint verification, but there is no need for third-party verification."

The Prime Minister was referring to reports that Britain and the United States have offered to help monitor the Line of Control that divides the Himalayan province.

The move came as Donald Rumsfeld, the US Secretary of State, was due to arrive in Britain for talks with Prime Minister Tony Blair at the start of a short European tour before travelling to the Indian sub-continet in an initiative to reduce tension in the region.

India and Pakistan have been on a war footing since December with 1 million troops along their frontier.

"We want to move away from a path of confrontation to a path of cooperation," Mr Vajpayee said before leaving Kazakhstan, where he attended an Asian security conference with Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf.

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

"Indian citizens want that terrorism should stop and if these steps can be done through peaceful ways, then people will be happy," he said. "Pakistan was not ready to stop cross-border terrorism. They are ready now — at least they say they are."

He said 3,000 Islamic militants were being trained in Pakistan-based militant camps, preparing to join the 12-year insurgency for Kashmir's independence or merger with Pakistan. At least 60,000 people have died, most of them civilians, since the insurgency was launched.

"Once infiltration stops, terrorist camps are dismantled across the border and verification is done, we can consider other steps that will take us toward de-escalation," Mr Vajpayee said.

It was the first indication in the standoff that India was willing to cooperate with Pakistan."We are not against dialogue, but cross-border terrorism must end," Mr Vajpayee said. "Pakistan claims that infiltration has stopped. We want to test the Pakistani claim."