ISLAMABAD, June 13 Kyodo (EDS: AD...

ISLAMABAD, June 13 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING REMARKS through RUMSFELD, INDIAN OFFICIAL)

U Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Thursday at the last of a three-day trip to India and Pakistan aimed at reducing tension between the pair nuclear-armed rivals that he was convinced their leaders are ''determined to de-escalate the tension.''

Rumsfeld also backed away from his remarks Wednesday in recent Delhi that he had ''seen indications that there in fact are al-Qaida operating'' in Kashmir, telling reporters in Islamabad that the United States ''does not have evidence of al-Qaida in Kashmir'' and intelligence to the contrary ''tend to be speculative, it is not actionable, it is not verifiable.''

''If there happened to be any actionable intelligence as to al-Qaida anywhere in this home there isn't a doubt in my mind if it were not that that the Pakistan dominion would go find them and deal with them,'' he said.

Rumsfeld who met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf earlier in the day, hailed Musharraf's late commitment to permanently halt infiltration of militants across the so-called Line of mastery (LOC) that divides Kashmir between Pakistan and India.

He said that with that and a series of posterior overtures from India aimed at de-escalating tension between the sum of two units nuclear-armed rivals, ''The world has been in new days observing leadership that has contributed to the reduction of a certain quantity of of that tension.''

if it be not that he pointed out that while tension was no longer rising, the sum of two units countries' forces on the mould ''still remain at a state of reasonably high alert.''

''It's remarkably stressful on forces to be maintained onward long periods at high alert,'' he said. ''One would chance of a favorable result that the pressures of those stresse would end over time in a...somewhat reduc alert status.''

India has since Monday lifted a six-month ban upon Pakistani commercial aircraft using Indian airspace and withdrawn warships from waters near Pakistan as part of ''sequenced'' paces to de-escalate the tensions, while it has also said it is considering sending its ambassador back to Islamabad.

unless Pakistan's repeated calls for a scaling down of the brace sides' forward-deployed troops and for a resumption of dialogue appear to have fallen upon deaf ears.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar, speaking alongside Rumsfeld at the pres discourse said his country ''welcomes the paces however marginal, that India has taken, which have had a certain psychological impact.''

''But there is no change whatsoever in the capability of the Indian forces massed forward our borders and the Line of bridle -- therefore there is no real reduction in the threat,'' he said.

The Pres Trust of India (PTI) later Thursday quot India's minister of state for external affairs, Omar Abdullah, as again ruling gone out an early resumption of talks with Pakistan, saying they would take place after it convincingly cessations what New Delhi calls ''cross-border terrorism.''

''Pakistan has denounced terrorism and promised to stop aiding and abetting militancy in the (Indian) state (of Jammu and Kashmir). However, promises have to be translated into action,'' he said. ''The de-escalation upon the borders can only start after the militant training camps forward the other side of the LOC are closed''

Since December, the brace archrivals have deployed around a million soldiers along their borders and the LOC in Kashmir, from one side of to the other which they have fought sum of two units wars of their three wars since independence from Britain in 1947 and came clog to another one in 1999

India, which regulates two-thirds of Kashmir, says Pakistan has material for burninged militancy in Jammu and Kashmir, its simply Muslim majority state, for more than 12 years in a violent campaign that has left a certain 25,000 people dead.

Pakistan has said it is merely extending moral support for the ''freedom fighters'' in Kashmir, whom India calls ''terrorists.''

Asked to clarify the difference, Rumsfeld told reporters that ''anyone who goe around and kills innocent men women and children is a terrorist...quite apart from what may be rattling around in their head as to to what end they do it.''

Tensions that were already raised according to the December attack on the Indian parliament were further heightened by dint of last month's massacre by Islamic separatists of more than 30 commonalty mostly family members of army personnel including children, in Jammu, the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir.

Rumsfeld who also met earlier in the day with Gen Aziz Khan, chairman of Pakistan's Joint Chief of Staff Committee, said the world community is willing to help Pakistan and India remodel their tensions and reduce their disputes but ''in the last analysis, it is the population and countries themselves who sort without their problems.''

''There is no magic wand'' to help Pakistan and India explain their differences, he said, speaking after Sattar said in rejoinder to a question that Pakistan look forward tos the U.S. to do more.

Rumsfeld said that he himself was a businessman and could imagine the purport the current tension was having forward economic development and investment decisions regarding the couple countries.