Bush warns Pakistan to stop testing missiles

President George Bush warned Pakistan yesterday that it must step back from war in the sub-continent by putting an end to "terrorist" incursions into Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Mr Bush was talking in Paris after Pakistan staged a second missile test in response to a threatened Indian build-up.

"I'm more concerned about making sure ... that President Musharraf shows results in terms of stopping people from crossing the line of control," Mr Bush said after meeting with the French President, Jacques Chirac. "Stopping terrorism is more important than the missile testing."

The US President's strongest language so far on the tensions in south Asia came after he arrived in France on the third stage of a week-long European tour. In two hours of talks with Mr Chirac, followed by a working dinner last night, France and the US agreed there should be no slackening of the effort against terrorism launched after 11 September.

There was less sign of accord on topics that have irritated US-European Union relations in recent weeks, including the American decision to ditch the Kyoto clean-air treaty and trade disputes over steel and farm produce.

More than 4,000, mostly left-wing, protesters marched in Paris and about 1,000 gathered in Caen in Normandy, accusing Mr Bush of being a "war-monger" and bent on "world domination". The turn-out at both was less than organisers hoped for. More protests are expected today when Mr Bush visits the American cemetery near the Omaha D-Day landing beach to give a speech for US domestic consumption on Memorial Day.