Bush urges leaders to pursue diplomacy, pull back from war

WASHINGTON -- President Bush appealed to Indian and Pakistani leaders on Wednesday to "draw back from war," while the State Department strongly advised Americans in the two nuclear-armed countries to get out.

In back-to-back phone calls to Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, Bush "stressed the need to choose the path of diplomacy," said White House press secretary Ari Fleischer.

Bush told Musharraf the United States expects Pakistan to live up to its anti-terrorism commitments. In his subsequent conversation with Vajpayee, Bush asked India to take "de-escalatory steps," including a de-emphasis on troops amassed along the frontier with Pakistan, Fleischer said.

According to the Pakistani government news agency, Musharraf assured Bush that peaceful resolution of the standoff remains possible and Pakistan "would not initiate" war.

Bush worked the phones on the eve of an emissary's arrival on the subcontinent.

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage is meeting with officials in Pakistan on Thursday and in India on Friday. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is also en route to the region for meetings in Islamabad and New Delhi.

"The stage we are in right now is focused on bringing stability and reducing tensions and helping the nations to draw back from war," Fleischer said. Bush and his envoys aim to get the two sides talking to each other, he said.

Russia and China failed to get Vajpayee and Musharraf into a face-to-face meeting when the two men were in Kazakhstan on Tuesday for an Asia summit.

In its strongest travel warnings since the nuclear rivals assumed a war footing in December, the State Department said Wednesday: "Tensions have risen to serious levels and the risk of intensified military hostilities between India and Pakistan cannot be ruled out."

There are some 60,000 U.S. citizens in India and several thousand in Pakistan.