Rumsfeld presses on to end Kashmir rift

Sporadic firing punctured the relative calm on the India-Pakistan frontier yesterday as Donald Rumsfeld, the American Defence Secretary, shuttled from one capital to the other, attempting to ease the threat of war between the nuclear-armed nations.

"Progress is being made," Mr Rumsfeld told a press conference in Islamabad, but he cautioned that the opposing armies were "beginning to feel the stress of high alert".

Overnight shelling in Kashmir killed five people, local officials said. Indian and Pakistani troops engaged in shelling along the Line of Control dividing the disputed Himalayan region, the Indian Defence Ministry said. But overall, Kashmir was relatively quiet yesterday afternoon, when compared with the heavy firing between the armies over the past month.

Meanwhile, about 15 warships carrying more than 5,000 naval forces, which had earlier moved close to Pakistani waters, returned to Bombay in a gesture that Delhi described as a "significant step" toward reducing tension with Pakistan.

Colin Powell, the American Secretary of State, told the G8 summit in Canada on Wednesday that the sub-continent had calmed since Pakistan assured India it would halt infiltration of Islamic militants across the Line of Control. American officials would remain engaged as tensions ebbed, "but the principal role we will be playing is as facilitator of dialogue", he said.

Mr Rumsfeld said after meeting Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the Indian Prime Minister, on Wednesday that he had indications of al-Qa'ida members operating in the areas close to the Line of Control. But he reversed his position yesterday, after meeting Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's President.

"The facts are that I do not have evidence and the United States does not have evidence of al-Qa'ida in Kashmir," Mr Rumsfeld told reporters.(AP)