Pakistani politicians to meet on India tension

By Zeeshan Haider

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has summoned political leaders to develop a "national consensus policy" on India as bilateral tension grows after a militant attack on Mumbai, Gilani's spokesman said on Monday.

Indian investigators said the militants who attacked Mumbai had months of commando training in Pakistan, raising the risk of heightened tension between the nuclear-armed neighbors.

Pakistan condemned the Mumbai assault as a "barbaric act of terrorism" and has denied any involvement by state agencies.

"The prime minister has convened the national security conference Tuesday to discuss the prevailing situation in the context of present relations with India," said Gilani's spokesman, Zahid Bashir.

Pakistan has vowed to cooperate with India in investigating the attack although it backtracked on a decision to send the chief of its main Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) security agency, instead saying an ISI representative would go.

Pakistan has warned that if tension with India escalates, it would have to move troops from its Afghan border -- where it is battling al Qaeda and Taliban fighters responsible for violence in Pakistan and Afghanistan -- to the Indian border.

Pakistan and India went to the brink of their fourth war after a 2001 attack on the Indian parliament that New Delhi also blamed on Pakistan-based militants.

Both sides massed hundreds of thousands of troops on the border.

The United States, alarmed war between its allies would derail efforts against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, helped cool tempers.

The two sides declared a ceasefire in Kashmir in late 2003 and soon embarked on a peace process Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari had been trying to push forward.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who will visit India Wednesday, played down the threat of conflict.

MILITANT TRAINING

The renewed tension with India comes as Zardari's civilian government, elected this year, is struggling with an economic crisis and its own campaign against militant violence.

The International Monetary Fund stepped in with a loan of $7.6 billion last week. The rupee firmed Monday despite violence between rival ethnic-based factions in the commercial capital, Karachi, and the tension with India.

But dealers said confrontation with India could put pressure on a currency that has sunk more than 20 percent this year.