Pakistani missile tests continue amid pleas for restraint

Pakistan defied international petitions with a second day of missile tests yesterday, as Atal Bihari Vajpayee, India's Prime Minister, said his patience was growing thin over attacks by Islamic militants in Kashmir.

"When the world is fighting terrorism and American forces are in Afghanistan fighting the forces of terrorism, then how and for how long can India tolerate terrorism?" Mr Vajpayee said in a nationally televised address.

His comments were backed up by a call from President George Bush, in Paris, for President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan to stop testing missiles and to focus instead on cracking down on militants.

Yesterday was Islamabad's first trial of the new short-range "Ghaznavi" missile, named after an 11th-century Afghan conqueror of the Indian sub-continent, Mahmud Ghaznavi. Military experts say it can be used against tank convoys and garrisons, and could reach the border regions of India. Pakistan says its missile tests will end tomorrow, and have nothing to do with the Kashmir conflict.

India has meanwhile stepped up its war rhetoric and sent warships within striking range of Pakistan, responding to an attack earlier this month on an Indian army camp in the region, which it blames on militants based in Pakistan. Thirty-four people were killed, many of them soldiers' wives and children.

Pakistan's testing of long-range and short-range missiles is seen as a psychological counter-balance to India's massing of troops on the line of control in Kashmir.

About a million troops are now massed on the line of control in the disputed state of Kashmir, where exchanges of artillery fire have left dozens of villagers dead and forced thousands more to flee their homes.

Five civilians were killed on the Indian side yesterday, Indian police said. General Musharraf is due to address Pakistan on national television today, raising hopes of a stirring speech similar to one in January, in which he vowed to crack down on Islamic terror.

India has, however, tired of General Musharraf's good intentions. Mr Vajpayee said India would wait to see whether international efforts to persuade Pakistan to crack down on Islamic militants were successful. India has taken some of the heat out of the crisis by intimating that it will not launch a war for several weeks.

In the meantime, high-level foreign envoys will be working overtime to get Pakistan to address India's demands.

President Vladimir Putin of Russia has invited General Musharraf and Mr Vajpayee to have separate one-to-one meetings with him on the sidelines of a gathering of Asian leaders in Kazakhstan early next month.

Pakistan says it is ready to talk, and India is expected to agree. Analysts said the war rhetoric was already becoming a background noise to diplomatic efforts.

Yesterday Mr Vajpayee confirmed the impression that international pleas for restraint were having an effect.

In striking contrast to the bellicose tones he used last week, when he called on troops to prepare for a "decisive fight", yesterday he said: "There is a limit to our patience and tolerance. The efforts that are going on, we will see to what extent they bear fruit."