WASHINGTON, May 23 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – As tensions continued to mount after the assassination of a Muslim separatist leader, putting India and Pakistan on the brink of war, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw conferred on the escalating crisis on Wednesday, May 22. 

Powell called Straw, who heads to South Asia next week, from the presidential jet as he traveled with President George W. Bush to Europe, a senior State Department official said. 

"Powell talked to Straw this morning from Air Force One. South Asia was definitely a topic, the whole context of situation between India and Pakistan is very worrisome," the official said. 

The official did not say whether they discussed Britain's decision to pull more than 150 diplomatic staff and dependents out of Pakistan over a security threat. 

Washington made a similar move earlier this year. 

Straw's mission to India and Pakistan next week comes amid new signs of a diplomatic mobilization over the South Asian crisis. 

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian affairs Christina Rocca has just returned from the region, and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage is expected in India and Pakistan in early June. 

Powell, mounted a personal peace shuttle earlier this year, the last time when India-Pakistan relations threatened to boil over, following an attack on parliament in New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based militants. 

He had since had frequent telephone conversations with President General Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan and Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh. 

Straw said Tuesday that while he would do all he could to ease tensions, there was no "pre-cooked" peace plan. 

"India and Pakistan both have nuclear weapons and a capacity to use them and have talked publicly about a possible nuclear exchange. 

"It is therefore a conflict with potentially devastating consequences for the people of both countries and of profound concern to the whole of the international community."

Abdul Ghani Lone, an executive member of the main separatist alliance in Kashmir, the All Party Hurriyat Conference was assassinated Tuesday.  

Meanwhile, Pakistan said Wednesday it would fight back if attacked by India, but called for negotiations to resolve the dispute as tensions brought the nuclear rivals to the brink of war, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported. 

In a statement released after President Pervez Musharraf met his cabinet and security chiefs, Pakistan also said it would root out terrorists from the country but continue to lend "moral and diplomatic support" to the cause of Kashmiri self-determination. 

The statement came shortly after Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said during a visit to insurgency-wracked Kashmir that it was time for a "decisive fight". 

"Our goal should be victory because now the time has come for a decisive fight and in this war we will win ... We have to fight our own war, we are ready for it, we are prepared for it," Vajpayee said. 

Foreign Office spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan Wednesday slammed Vajpayee's comments as "blatant war-mongering" and called on the Indian leadership to halt the rhetoric and focus on resolving the dispute. 

Khan said Indian leaders should not misunderstand the restraint shown so far by Pakistan in the face of their "provocative statements and moves." 

"Pakistan has the ability to defend itself against any war imposed by India. Any misadventure by India will be met with full force," he said, adding that India should not imagine it could wage and win a war against Pakistan.  

"This would be a major miscalculation leading to grave consequences." 

The Musharraf meeting expressed "deep concern" over India's massing of troops on the border and "the threatening and aggressive statements by the Indian leadership." 

The neighbors have deployed around a million troops on their common borders after India blamed Pakistan for an attack on its parliament in December