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Cross-border infiltration is down significantly: US

T V Parasuram in Washington

The United States on Friday said it has 'growing indications' that infiltration across the Line of Control 'is down significantly', but could not yet verify whether this has been done 'permanently'.

"We have growing indications that infiltration across the Line of Control is down significantly," state department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington.

"I have also to say at this point we cannot say the change has been done on a permanent basis," he hastened to add.

"That is what (Pakistan) President (Pervez) Musharraf has promised and that is what we are looking for," Boucher said.

Boucher said US Secretary of State Richard Armitage would go from India to Estonia where he would brief Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who will be going to New Delhi on the same mission -- to defuse Indo-Pak military tensions.

Describing Armitage's talks with Indian government as 'good and thorough', Boucher said the deputy secretary of state continues to work in some detail with the governments of India and Pakistan on the issue of defusing tensions between them.

Boucher said the US welcomes External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh's statement that his government is committed to carry forward on the path of peace and the US is looking forward to India taking feasible and concrete steps to lower tensions.

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