Rumsfeld- War risk still high

TALLINN, Estonia -- The risk of war between India and Pakistan remains high, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Friday as he prepared to visit the nuclear-armed rivals.

"There is nothing that has changed the situation to any degree favorably," Rumsfeld told reporters accompanying him to this Baltic capital after two days of NATO meetings in Belgium.

Still, in what might be seen as a positive development, a senior U.S. official traveling with Rumsfeld said three battalions of Pakistani Army troops, about 2,000 soldiers, had been moved closer to the border with Afghanistan -- farther from Pakistan's eastern border with India.

The official, who disclosed the troop movement on condition of anonymity, said the extra Pakistani troops would be available for operations against the al-Qaida terrorist network.

Rumsfeld said he had "not seen anything significant in terms of adjustments" of Pakistani or Indian armed forces facing off over the disputed Kashmir region or in their alert levels.

India has 250,000 troops and 1,500 artillery pieces on its side of the line of control, which separates the Indian and Pakistani sectors of Kashmir. Pakistan has 180,000 troops and 600 guns.

Rumsfeld plans to visit the Pakistani and Indian capitals late next week, after talks in Tallinn with Baltic and Nordic defense ministers and stops early next week in Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain.