British, US diplomacy saved India, Pakistan from war: Straw

The Foreign Office, headed by Straw, and the US State Department, under then secretary of state Colin Powell, worked tirelessly to defuse the stand-off between the countries over the disputed region of Kashmir, the minister said.

He was responding to a question about hopes for a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir problem following a speech in London to British diplomats.

"In early 2002 the anxiety internationally ... was whether Pakistan and India would move towards a conventional war -- after all they have had three of those -- which in turn could turn into a nuclear war," Straw recalled.

"If that had happened the consequences for the world would have been catastrophic," he said.

"It took very active diplomacy by the United States and the United Kingdom -- and it was those two countries and bluntly no others."

Straw said he and Powell were heavily involved in negotiations with the rowing neighbours, travelling repeatedly to the region during three months of discussions.

"In the end, Pakistan and India looked over the abyss, saw starkly that they simply couldn't start another conventional war, where it might lead and pulled back," said Straw.

Rather than a frozen conflict developing, this move led to a thawing of relations between the two countries.

Former Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee followed by his successor Manmohan Singh agreed to dialogue with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf over a range of issues including Kashmir, the Himalayan territory that is divided between India and Pakistan.