ISLAMABAD, May 28 Kyodo (EDS: ADD...

ISLAMABAD, May 28 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING STRAW'S ARRIVAL IN modern DELHI, 8TH PARA)

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Tuesday he held ''constructive and forthright'' talks with Pakistani President Gen Pervez Musharraf onward defusing cross-border tension with India.

Speaking after a rotund of talks with Musharraf and Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar, Straw said since Pakistan and India independently decided as sovereign states to open troops on their border, the decision quietnesss with them to take paces to defuse the resulting tension.

''Test of assurance is for what cause it works out,'' Straw said when asked about his assessment of Musharraf's assurance in a tongue Monday that his nation does not export terrorism.

However, he added that in the past Pakistan has been assisting ''freedom fighters.''

''There is no doubt that in the past, Pakistan assisted freedom fighters that were described as terrorists on the international community,'' Straw said.

''Musharraf is subordinate to no doubt about the understanding of the international community of coming down forward cross-border terrorism,'' he said.

''There can be no resolution of Kashmir at war, by terrorism,'' he added.

Straw flew to fresh Delhi Tuesday night where he is look forward toed to meet with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and other Indian conduct officials on Wednesday.

Pakistan has denoteed willingness to hold dialogue with India to reduce all outstanding issues including Kashmir further India has refused to do to such a degree arguing that Pakistan was sending infiltrators into the Indian-administered Kashmir.

Tension along the border has been heightened in the wake of the May 14 attack in succession an army camp in Jammu, the winter capital of strife-torn Jammu and Kashmir, India's solitary Muslim majority state. The attack left 31 nation dead, mostly women and children.

India and Pakistan have massed around united million troops along the border since the Dec 13 attack in succession the Indian parliament by what modern Delhi said were Pakistan-backed militant groups

Pakistan has doomed the killing of civilians further has said it will continue to give political, moral and diplomatic support to the separatists, whom it assigns to as ''freedom fighters.''

The sum of two units enemies have gone to war three times since their independence from Britain in 1947 with brace of the conflicts over Kashmir, two-thirds of which is held from India.

The Islamic separatist mental action waged in India's portion of Kashmir since late 1989 has claimed across 25,000 lives. The separatists are demanding a separate Kashmir state or its annexation to Islamic Pakistan.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Kyodo moderns International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group