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NEW DELHI, India — Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said today that India would consider jointly monitoring the disputed Kashmir border with its longtime rival Pakistan.
In what could be a major step to ease tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors, Vajpayee said India and Pakistan should work together to patrol the Kashmir border and verify Islamic militants were no longer crossing into Indian-controlled Kashmir to launch attacks.
"Joint patrolling can be held by India and Pakistan," Vajpayee said in a news conference in Altmaty, Kazakhstan, that was shown live on Indian television. "There can be joint verification, but there is no need for third-party verification."
Vajpayee was referring to reports that Britain and the United States have offered to help monitor the Line of Control that divides the Himalayan province between the South Asian neighbors.
India and Pakistan have been on a war footing since December, with about 1 million troops deployed along their tense frontier.
The international community has been scrambling to avert a potential fourth war between India and Pakistan as fears of a nuclear confrontation have escalated.
"We want to move away from a path of confrontation to a path of cooperation," Vajpayee said.
The prime minister spoke just before leaving Kazakhstan, where he attended an Asian security conference with Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and leaders from 14 other nations, including Russia and China.
On Tuesday, Russian efforts to bring Pakistan and India to the negotiating table fizzled as the leaders of the two rival nations exchanged bitter blasts over who was to blame for the standoff.
Although they spent several hours sitting just a few feet apart during the summit, Vajpayee and Musharraf would not shake hands or speak directly. Instead, they delivered pointed speeches in front of their regional peers, each maintaining a hard stare as his adversary spoke.
Russian President Vladimir Putin tried unsuccessfully to bridge the divide by meeting separately with Musharraf and Vajpayee for hours after the main summit session ended.
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