Two militants stormed an Indian police camp in Kashmir, killing three policemen, as Washington warned that extremists could turn a standoff between India and Pakis-tan into a full-blown war.
The militants, who attacked the camp late on Wednesday, were holed up inside as police said they were delaying action against them in an attempt to capture them alive.
Though such incidents are common in Kashmir -- where India faces a 12-year-old revolt against its rule -- the latest raid added to tension in the confrontation with Pakistan, which New Delhi accuses of stoking the insurgency in Kashmir.
The nuclear-armed neighbors, who have mobilized a million men along their border, exchanged mortar and machine-gun fire yesterday along the Line of Control, a ceasefire line dividing disputed Kashmir.
"There is a danger that as tensions escalate, the leaders could find themselves in a situation in which irresponsible elements can spark a conflict," US State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington. "The climate is very charged and a serious conflagration could ensue if events spiral out of control."
The latest raid came hours after British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw ended a peace mission to South Asia, saying the risk of war was high but conflict not inevitable.
US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage visits India and Pakistan on June 6 and June 7 in another bid to avert a war that would derail the US-led fight against terror and possibly devastate the region.
US television networks said he was likely to be followed to the region by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Analysts say tough talk from Indian and Pakistani leaders may mask efforts to find a face-saving way to back away from conflict while keeping hawks on side and maintaining political support.
Neither side wants another war. They have fought three -- two over Kashmir -- since Britain partitioned its Indian empire into Islamic Pakistan and secular but mainly Hindu India in 1947.
Pakistan's UN ambassador said on Wednesday if his country were to rule out use of nuclear arms, that would give India a "license to kill" Pakistanis. India has a numerical superiority over Pakistan in conventional forces.
Munir Akram told a news conference that while Pakistan would not attack India unless it was first attacked, it had never subscribed to a doctrine of "no first use" of nuclear arms.
Britain and Japan, part of an international peace offensive, said Pakistan genuinely wanted to meet Indian demands and stop Muslim militants launching raids into Indian territory.
But Australia's defense minister said yesterday the standoff could still blow up into a major conflict.
"It's on the edge again with a real risk of escalating and a real risk of going beyond the brink," Robert Hill told a news conference at a meeting in Malaysia.
"Nuclear weapon states simply can't afford to engage in limited conflict, the risk is just disproportionate," he said.
In preparation for an eventual war, USA Today reported that the US government was drawing up contingency plans for the evacuation of more than 60,000 Americans from India and Pakistan.
It said a US government team was in India working on a plan to evacuate 1,100 US servicemen from three bases in Pakistan and more than 60,000 US citizens in both countries.
However, asked if a team from Washington was in India preparing an emergency evacuation plan, a US embassy spokesman in New Delhi said: "No."
"Every embassy in the world has contingency plans for an evacuation. That is a standard operating procedure," he said.
Australia and New Zealand have already urged their citizens to leave India and Pakistan, and advised them to defer travel to the countries.
India, which has warned world leaders over the phone and visiting envoys that its patience is running out, said on Wednesday Musharraf had had enough time to act.
"General Musharraf has had all the time he wants. It is vital that he recognize the urgency of the situation," Indian foreign minister Jas-want Singh told reporters.
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