Bush to send Rumsfeld to India, Pakistan

Associated Press WriterWASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush on Thursday urged Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to "live up to his word" and stop cross-border attacks in Kashmir. He also will send Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to help ease tensions between India and Pakistan.

Secretary of State Colin Powell has already announced that his top aide, Richard Armitage, will go to the region next week as part of a broader international effort to prevent a war between the nuclear-powered neighbors.

"We are making it very clear to both Pakistan and India that war will not serve their interests, " Bush said after a Cabinet meeting. "We are part of an international coalition applying pressure to both parties."

In particular, he said, Musharraf must keep his promise to stem attacks in the disputed, predominantly Muslim Kashmir region.

"He must stop the incursions across the line of control. He must do so. He said he would do so," the president said. "We and others are making it clear to him that he must live up to his word."

Flanked by Powell and Rumsfeld at the polished Cabinet Room table, Bush said Rumsfeld will go to the region next week.

Later at the Pentagon, Rumsfeld said he had not decided which days he would be in India and Pakistan and he declined to discuss who he would meet with or what message he intended to deliver. He said the situation was so sensitive that any public comments he made might be misinterpreted.

"My instinct on this subject is to simply recognize that the two countries are clearly in a situation where they are not talking directly to each other and they have substantial disagreements," he said.

Rumsfeld said he had made no decision on whether any U.S. troops based in Pakistan or India would be withdrawn out of concern that the two countries might go to war.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Rumsfeld will visit both countries and unspecified other countries.

"All these visits are part of the international community's ongoing diplomacy to work with India and Pakistan to reduce tensions in the area and convince both parties that war does not serve their interests," Fleischer said.

With tensions skyrocketing, Bush responded to a report in USA Today that the government was making plans for the possible evacuation of 1,100 U.S. troops and up to 63,000 U.S citizens from both countries.

He said Rumsfeld and Powell are "analyzing what it would take to protect American lives if need be." He did not elaborate.

He also pledged to continue efforts to track down al-Qaida members in Pakistan.

"We're doing everything we can to shore up our effort on the Pakistan-Afghan border," Bush said. "We're going to hunt them down."

At the State Department, meanwhile, Powell was faced with a decision on whether to advise American diplomats and their dependents to leave India, two U.S. officials said.

Citing rising tensions, an official told The Associated Press: "We try to be prudent. Anytime tensions rise we review our options."

If Powell orders a voluntary departure from the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi and three consulates, U.S. diplomats and their dependents would be advised to consider leaving India on commercial airplanes or chartered planes at U.S. government expenses.

There are several hundred U.S. Embassy employees and dependents in New Delhi, Calcutta, Mumbai and Chennai, and some 60,000 U.S. citizens in India.

A tougher step, not entirely ruled out, is for Powell to order all but essential U.S. employees to depart. This was done in Pakistan after an attack last March on a church in Islamabad frequented by Westerners. This stripped the U.S. Embassy of all but a core contingent.

Bush has made the region a top priority for his diplomats, Fleischer said, and is stressing to India and Pakistan "the importance of taking steps to reduce the tensions and avoid a war."

Bush was satisfied with Musharraf's recent pledge to do more to halt terrorist operations, and "will continue to urge additional actions and ongoing actions by Pakistan, as well as by India, to reduce the tensions," Fleischer said.

In the Indian capital, New Delhi, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he had determined after meeting with leaders from both sides that war is not inevitable."

The border region of Kashmir has been hotly contested since British India was partitioned in 1947 and Kashmir went to Hindu India despite its overwhelmingly Muslim populace. The current phase of the crisis began two weeks ago when suspected Islamic militants attacked an Indian army base in Kashmir and killed more than 30 people, including 10 children.