Musharraf: India stockpiling weapons

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has accused India of bolstering its stockpile of conventional weapons and jeopardizing the power balance in the region.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has accused India of bolstering its stockpile of conventional weapons and jeopardizing the power balance in the region.

Musharraf, who will meet with U.S. President George W. Bush as well as address the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Thursday, said that India had stepped up its defense spending in the last three years.

Whereas Pakistan had frozen its defense expenditures at 1999 levels, New Delhi had increased spending by 50 percent over the same period, Musharraf said during a luncheon in Chicago.

"The visible tilt in conventional arms balance between India and Pakistan has dangerous portents and must be checked," Musharraf was quoted as saying by the Associated Press of Pakistan news agency.

The development was alarming, Pakistan's military ruler added, because more than 95 percent of India's armed forces were deployed against his country.

Brink of war

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India and Pakistan came to the brink of war earlier this year in a massive military standoff that saw more than one million troops posted to their shared border.

The crisis was sparked by a series of militant attacks on Indian soil by suspected Muslim extremists, including a bloody suicide raid on parliament in New Delhi last December and a number of attacks in Kashmir.

New Delhi accuses Pakistan of aiding militants fighting against Indian rule in the disputed territory. Islamabad denies the charge.

Tensions, though still high, subsided following a pledge from Musharraf to crack down on religious extremism and cross-border insurgency.

Musharraf repeated that Pakistan would never initiate conflict with India but instead would ensure a strong defense against aggression, the APP report said.

The Pakistani leader, who came to power in a bloodless military coup in 1999, added that the only path to stability in South Asia was through diplomacy on the issue of Kashmiri sovereignty.

"A sustained dialogue for a principled and lasting settlement must commence without further delay," Musharraf was quoted. "We remain ready for such a dialogue at any time, any place, any level."

U.N. address

Musharraf arrived in New York on Wednesday and is scheduled to address the 57th U.N. General Assembly on Thursday.

He is scheduled to be the fifth speaker at the assembly and is expected to outline Pakistan's position on several global issues, APP reported, including Islamabad's fight against terrorism and tensions on the India-Pakistan border.

Tensions on the subcontinent are also expected to feature during a meeting between Bush and Musharraf, also set for Thursday.

"The president will ... see President Musharraf to talk about the war on terror, the bilateral issues in our relationship, the importance of democracy and, in particular, the fact that the United States is watching very closely the elections that are to take place in October," a senior White House official told Reuters news agency.

Demonstrators in Karachi protest the rejection of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's bid to run in the October poll

The Bush administration has come under fire for its reaction to constitutional changes implemented by Musharraf ahead of the October poll.

Critics say the White House needs to condemn moves that will guarantee a major military role in the post-election government, and should be pushing Musharraf harder to return democracy in Pakistan.

The State Department offered only a mild rebuke in response to the constitutional changes, while Bush himself has focused more on Pakistan's cooperation in the war against terror, rather than its return to a civilian government.

Bush is also expected to meet Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

Reuters contributed to this report.