Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf yesterday slammed India's "very arrogant and knee-jerk" decision to recall its ambassador and sever transportation links with his country.
However the Pakistani leader, speaking on the third day of a trip to China, said his government would not retaliate.
"We regret the very arrogant and knee-jerk response of the Indian government," Musharraf said after a tour of the famous Grand Mosque in the ancient northern city of Xian, which was smothered in security for his visit.
Asked whether Pakistan would retaliate, he said: "No."
Troops and police lined many of the streets of Xian, where last weekend a bomb at a McDonald's restaurant, a short walk from the mosque, killed two people. No one has been arrested for the blast.
The Pakistani leader's trip to China, his country's closest ally, has been overshadowed by a simmering crisis with India over alleged Pakistani support for gunmen who attacked the Indian parliament on Dec. 13.
Tensions, already high amid a rash of troop build-ups, escalated late Friday with India's announcement it was withdrawing its ambassador from Pakistan and also severing rail and bus links.
Fourteen people died in the attack, which India has accused Pakistani intelligence of backing.
In a separate sign of support for his hosts, Musharraf also used the visit to the mosque to urge China's Muslims to be "very patriotic," giving clear backing for Beijing's controversial campaign against Islamic separatists in the tense Xinjiang region.
"Islam is a religion of peace and we don't believe in any violence and therefore you, being a part of China, have to be very patriotic and for the good of China, all Muslims in China [should] work for the good of China," Musharraf told the imam at the Grand Mosque.
That Musharraf has gone ahead with his trip despite the crisis with India shows the world China and Pakistan remain close allies, despite the formerly isolated South Asian country's involvement in Western plans for the future of Afghanistan, analysts say.
Meanwhile, an Indian court yesterday extended the judicial custody of three suspects arrested over the attack on the parliament.
The court extended judicial custody for another two weeks for three of the suspects while the police custody of a fourth suspect was extended another seven days, officials said.
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