It said Pakistan had been alarmed by the Indian ``simulated'' war games involving operations on land, sea and air in the Thar desert and possible amphibious landings on the western sea coast.

``Several army divisions will mass in the desert for two weeks of simulated war games backed by tanks, artillery, helicopters and jets in addition to possible India's short range Prithvi missiles'' the Sunday Telegraph said, adding backup would be provided by battleships, aircraft carriers and submarines. The Indian defence ministry had last week said that the manoeuvres were ``scheduled routine training exercises''. The paper quoted Western military intelligence sources as drawing attention to the Pakistan army's``extreme nervousness'' inthis regard.

``The Pakistan army officer corp is currently in restive mood after recent confrontation between the army high command and the political executive and there are sections which could prove to be unpredictable,'' Western defence experts here said adding that to build up phobia against any Indian ``intentions'' could be one of the ploys of the army to wrest back its lost initiative.

Telegraph said Pakistan had recently received fresh shipments of weapons material including ``warhead canisters for its recently tested surface-to-surface 1,200-km Ghauri missiles from North Korea.''

The paper quoting sources said with the talks scheduled to ``resume between the two countries later this week there is little doubt, however, that the exercises were coming at a sensitive time.''

Western military sources said next month's massive Indian war games were the first to be held on such a scale after almost a decade, with last such exercises codenamed `Operation Brasstacks' undertaken in the Rajasthandesert in 1987. Telegraph said India's huge planned military exercises follows last week's reported first armed clashes between Iranian troops and the Taliban militia on the Iran-Afghanistan border.

``In such an atmosphere, Indian military manoeuvres are viewed with alarm by Western observers, who fear that India might use the exercises to launch air strikes against militant training camps in Pakistani-occupied Kashmir", Telegraph claimed, without, explaining how exercises in the Rajasthan desert and near the Arabian Sea could spark off strikes against terrorists camps in PoK.

The paper said tension between the two countries had risen sharply in August when the two sides had exchanged firing across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. Media reports said although India and Pakistan had now ``settled into a pattern'' of sporadic exchanges across the Line of Control, India continues to be ``incensed'' by Pakistan-sponsored terrorist activity in Jammu and Kashmir.

Telegraph said last monthPakistan was embarrassed when its relationship with a mercenary group in Kashmir, Harket-ul-Mujahideen, which was responsible for murdering six foreign tourists in Kashmir in 1995, came to light after American missile attacks partially destroyed Harkat training camps in Afghanistan.