U.S. won't mediate on Kashmir

By CNN State Department Correspondent
Andrea Koppel

SHANNON, Ireland (CNN) -- The United States will not become a mediator between India and Pakistan but it will press both countries to resume a direct dialogue over Kashmir, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell says.

"We'd like to be helpful," Powell told reporters traveling with him en route from Washington to Pakistan.

But Powell, who arrives in Pakistan Wednesday, said the U.S. would not mediate between the nuclear neighbors unless both sides asked, something India has long resisted.

With hundreds of thousands of Indian and Pakistani troops massed along a 3,000 kilometer (1,800 mile) border, Powell's peacekeeping mission comes at an especially delicate and dangerous time.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars already since 1947, two of them over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.

MORE STORIES Pakistan crackdown gathers pace    VIDEO Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's speech pleased most Pakistanis. CNN's Ash-Har Quraishi reports. Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf addresses terrorism and the Kashmir conflict in a televised speech. CNN's Tom Mintier reports. Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   IN-DEPTH India-Pakistan standoff  • Picture gallery

India has accused Pakistani-based Islamic extremists of carrying out a suicide attack last month against the Indian parliament in New Delhi and has since demanded that Pakistan's president take explicit actions to crack down on those extremists.

A war between India and Pakistan would have a global impact and could affect Pakistan's role in aiding the U.S. in its Afghanistan military campaign.

Pakistan has been instrumental in helping capture many of the Taliban and al Qaeda leaders now in U.S. custody.

After a much anticipated speech Saturday by Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, Powell said he believed "the rush toward conflict has slowed a bit."

"I want to talk to President Musharraf and (Indian) Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh to see what we have to do now to bring it to a complete halt and then start going in reverse," Powell said.

The United States wants a complete withdrawal of troops from the border by both sides.

A senior State Department official traveling with Powell said that during meetings this week with Indian and Pakistani leaders, Powell hopes to remove some of the political and diplomatic obstacles -- such as opening up border traffic and removing overflight restrictions, in order to "lay a basis for them to start talking with one another."

Powell reiterated U.S. support for Musharraf's weekend speech and said he hoped it would resonate throughout the Islamic world.

"What was particularly noteworthy was the message he was giving to the Pakistani people ... about how that kind of behavior -- extremism, terrorism, support for terrorism -- is no longer acceptable," Powell said.

"And how jihad has to be practiced in the context of helping people: education, health care, taking care of people."

Powell also said that since Musharraf's speech, the U.S. had seen "some action" to ban additional terrorist organizations.

While in Islamabad Powell is scheduled to meet Pakistan's foreign minister and president, to be followed by meetings in India Thursday.

Powell's trip will also take him to Nepal for the first U.S. cabinet-level visit there since vice president Spiro Agnew traveled there in 1971, and then on to Afghanistan to discuss rebuilding efforts with new leader Hamid Karzai.

Meanwhile, a delegation of U.S. senators to Pakistan has promised the U.S. will play more of a role in the impoverished South Asian nation..

"Whether it's in trade, whether it's in a more permanent presence, whether we can find ways to assist in the Kashmiri dispute, I think that there are ways in which the United States can continue to show its gratitude and to be the player it needs to be in this region and certainly with the government of this country," Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said.