ISLAMABAD, December 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Islamabad warned New Delhi against war-mongering Sunday, December 1, after India's deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani challenged Pakistan to drop its alleged support for the Muslim insurgency in Kashmir or fight another war.

"No one in India should live under the illusion that a self-respecting nation like Pakistan can be cowed down by any amount of intimidation and coercion," Information Minister Sheikh Rasheed told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"It is unfortunate that Advani has again started beating the war drums. He should be aware that although Pakistan does not want any conflict, it is fully prepared and has all the means and capabilities to give a crushing reply to any misadventure by India."

Pakistan and India have fought three wars since their independence in 1947, two of them over the Himalayan state of Kashmir which is divided between the two but claimed in full by both.

The Indian-controlled section has been rocked by an insurgency since 1989 in which more than 37,500 people have died, although independence claiming Kashmiris put the figure at double that.

Advani, addressing a pre-election campaign rally in Gujarat Saturday, November 30, said that a fully-fledged war was preferable to recurring terror attacks in India. "Let us fight it out face-to-face. We have fought thrice, let there be a fourth war," he said.

He insisted that Pakistan was fighting a "proxy war" in Kashmir by arming and training Islamic rebels in the divided frontier territory.

Pakistan denies sponsoring the Kashmiri activists and insists that it only offers moral and diplomatic support to what it argues is the Kashmiris' struggle against Indian rule.

Pakistan's Rasheed said Advani had long sabotaged relations between the neighboring countries.

"Advani has always been at the forefront of sinister machinations designed to wreck all prospects for improvement of relations between India and Pakistan," he said.

Rasheed said India's allegations of "cross-border terrorism" were "aimed at nothing but covering up a worse kind of state terrorism it has perpetrated for decades against the innocent people of occupied Kashmir.

"The whole world is aware of the gravity of the situation in Kashmir and has consistently called for a peaceful solution to the crisis through a dialogue process."

Meanwhile, Advani stepped up his offensive Sunday, arguing that the international community should "ostracize terror states", in an apparent reference to Pakistan.

"Terrorist organizations are dangerous but terror states are far more dangerous... The international community should ostracize such terror states in the interest of democracy, civilization and humanity," Advani was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency.

He was speaking at a parade by Border Security Forces, which guard India's frontiers, outside New Delhi.

The two countries amassed hundreds of thousands of troops on their shared border late last year after an attack on the Indian parliament, which New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based militant groups. Both countries have recently begun pulling troops back.

In a separate related development, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee Sunday warned he would not attend a regional South Asian summit in Pakistan next month unless cross-border militancy stops in Kashmir.

"I can consider going to the SAARC summit early next year provided infiltration and cross-border terrorism stops completely in Kashmir," Vajpayee told a news conference in the northern Indian city of Shimla.

The Premier's pre-condition ends speculation of his participation in the upcoming summit of the seven-member South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

Vajpayee also said that bilateral issues should not be raised up at the regional summit. "Pakistan does not like to talk on any other issue other than Kashmir and Kashmir is not a SAARC issue and so there is no point in discussing Kashmir at the summit," the Prime Minister said.

On Friday, November 29, Pakistan warned it would not accept preconditions for India's attendance at the South Asian summit to be hosted by Islamabad early next year.

"The government of Pakistan will not countenance any preconditions from any quarters merely to ensure their participation in the summit," a foreign ministry statement said.

Pakistan is to host the 12th meeting of the seven-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), and has proposed January 11 to 13 as possible dates.

The South Asian regional club, which accounts for a third of the world's workforce, groups Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.