On Pakistan-India

Pakistan and India's leaders shook hands before the start of the subcontinent summit on Saturday, Jan. 5. But this diplomatic handshake cannot hide the impasse the two neighbors have reached over Kashmir ....

Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has gone to great lengths to reduce the tension by suppressing Islamic movements implicated in terrorist acts in Kashmir ....

Despite these efforts ... it is difficult for Musharraf to extinguish the lit fuse of fundamentalism ....

Worried about the revived tension, the United States attempted to mediate between the two parties, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, transformed into an American diplomatic messenger, tried to renew dialogue. But the ambiguity of Washington's policy is obvious: George Bush's war on terrorism seems to stop as soon as it hampers his interests.

In need of Pakistan and its army to track Osama bin Laden and the remaining Taliban, the White House turned a deaf ear to Indian demands for help in its fight against Islamist terrorism in Kashmir.

-- Le Monde, Paris