Islamabad, Pakistan — British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Monday appeared to have failed in a whirlwind bid to defuse tensions between India and Pakistan, and he warned that a fourth war between the nuclear-armed foes would be devastating.
"If the tensions were to escalate, and escalate beyond control, I don't think you need to be a strategic genius to work out that it would be a very, very serious day for whole of the region and the world," Blair said at a news conference after meeting with Pakistan's military ruler, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, left, and Gen. Pervez Musharraf, president of Pakistan, consult each other at a joint news conference after meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan. Blair left Pakistan on Monday with no resolution to the escalating tensions between Pakistan and India.
Later Monday, Blair traveled to Afghanistan for a visit with the interim government there.
Blair met with Musharraf one day after talking in New Delhi with Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who has dispatched hundreds of thousands of troops to the 1,200-mile border between the two long-feuding nations.
Musharraf has responded in kind, and has declared Pakistan fully prepared to defend itself against attack. But he has said repeatedly that he would rather negotiate than fight.
He said Monday that he would outline new measures to contain Muslim extremists in a speech later this week. Those could include curbs on hate speech in Muslim schools and on fund raising for militant groups.
However, Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh said Monday that India is not ready for negotiations. New Delhi charges that Pakistan's government has backed terrorist groups, and says it must first be convinced that that support has ended.
Pakistan and India have fought three wars since Pakistan was created from Muslim portions of India after the country won independence from Britain in 1947. The buildup toward still another was triggered by an attack Dec. 13 on India's Parliament that killed 14 people, including the five attackers.
New Delhi accuses the Pakistani government of sponsoring terrorism against India in an effort to end its control over two-thirds of the territory of Kashmir, which both countries claim.
India so far seems unimpressed by Musharraf's crackdown on the two radical Islamic groups that New Delhi claims were responsible for the attack on Parliament. The leaders of both groups have been arrested, along with more than 300 other Islamic militants.
Musharraf also has shut down the branch of the Pakistan intelligence service that dealt with separatist groups in Kashmir, and has pledged to withdraw support for all nonindigenous militant groups there.
He has said, however, that Pakistan will continue to provide political and moral support to what government officials describe as the "freedom struggle" there.
At a joint news conference Monday with Blair, Musharraf, who has repeatedly denounced terrorism, said: "Pakistan rejects terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and has fully cooperated with the international coalition against terrorism in that spirit."
He said further measures to curtail Islamic militants were planned, and that he would announce them in a nationwide television address within the next few days.
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