Pakistan president pledges not to start war

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- A top American diplomat Thursday challenged India to match Pakistan's pledge not to start a war, but shelling persisted across the frontier in disputed Kashmir and at least 14 people were killed in fighting.

Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf has made it very clear that he is searching for peace, that he won't be the one to initiate war, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told reporters after a nearly two-hour meeting with the Pakistani leader.

Armitage said he would be looking for "the same type of assurance" when he travels to New Delhi today for talks with Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

At the State Department, spokesman Richard Boucher joined Armitage in calling for India to promise not to provoke war. Boucher also said the United States would continue efforts to verify that movement by Pakistan-based insurgents into Indian-controlled territory had ceased as Musharraf maintains.

"We look to India to take reciprocal steps," Boucher said. "So we think it's important for both sides to look at how to do that, how to de-escalate the tensions, how to ease off the confrontation."

Armitage also said Musharraf "expressed his absolute determination" to continue support for the U.S. military effort against al-Qaida terrorists. Last week Pakistani authorities moved some troops from the Afghan border as the Kashmir crisis deepened.

Large numbers of al-Qaida and Taliban fighters are believed hiding along the Afghan-Pakistan border.

The Armitage mission took on added significance after Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to arrange a private meeting between Musharraf and Vajpayee this week during a regional summit in Kazakhstan.

Kashmir fighting

Armitage was the latest international visitor to attempt mediation to end the crisis between the nuclear-armed South Asian rivals. The threat of a third war over Kashmir flared again in December when Islamic extremists, fighting Indian rule in the divided Himalayan enclave, attacked the Parliament building in New Delhi.

India claimed the extremists were backed by Pakistan, a charge the Pakistanis denied.

After the attack, both countries rushed thousands of troops to their border. Vajpayee refuses to withdraw his forces or meet with Musharraf until Pakistan shuts down rebel training camps and stops the flow of insurgents into Kashmir, which is claimed by both countries. The crisis has led to fears India may launch attacks against the part of Kashmir controlled by Pakistan to crush the insurgents, prompting fears one country or the other might use nuclear weapons. In the face of intensified fighting, the United States and Britain issued new calls urging Americans and Britons to leave both countries.

Despite signs of diplomatic progress, violence continued along the tense Kashmir frontier. Pakistani officials said six people were killed and 13 wounded on their side of the boundary. One civilian was reported injured by shelling in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Eight others -- three soldiers, four insurgents and one civilian -- were also killed in separate gunbattles on the Indian side, authorities said. The dead included Mohammed Rafiq Lone, leader of the Pakistan-based Harkat-ul Jehad-i-Islami, a small insurgent group.