"The fact that two Indian planes have been downed adds to the potential for further worsening of the situation," Assistant Secretary of State Karl F Inderfurth, who met Indian ambassador Naresh Chandra and Pakistani envoy Riaz Kohkhar separately yesterday, told media persons.

Inderfurth lamented that India and Pakistan instead of moving "back to the Lahore process" to address their longstanding conflicts were "going in the opposite direction and this concerns us."

He said that the meeting with Indian and Pakistani envoys supplemented similar efforts by the US ambassadors in New Delhi and Islamabad.

According to observers the Indian ambassador pointed out to Inderfurth India's resolve to clear the area of intruders and said Americanconcern should be directed more towards Islamabad as the latter has deliberately sought the confrontation by sending armed mercenaries aided by regular troops across the Line of Control (LoC) into Kargil sector in Kashmir.

There has been some speculation here among non-official observers whether the decision to "violate" the loc was taken by the Pakistani army and fundamentalist groups with the approval of premier Nawaz Sharif to sabotage the Lahore declaration signed by the latter and his Indian counterpart Atal Bihari Vajpayee in February.

The Pakistan army said today that Indian fighter jets which resumed air strikes on infiltrators in Kargil sector of Jammu and Kashmir this morning have "so far" not indulged in any "air incursion" across the Line of Control (LoC) but warned Islamabad was "ready for any eventuality".

"So far there has been no rocketing or bombing on our side of loc," Brig Rashid Qureshi, director general of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) told PTI hours after Indian AirForce jets began its fifth round of blitzkrieg on the hideouts of Pakistan-backed infiltrators at Kargil, Drass and Batalik areas in Kashmir.

When the ISPR chief was asked to comment on the reported development of highly sophisticated Russian-made Sukhoi-30 fighter aircraft by India he said till now they had no such information but "if it is true then...this is definitely an escalation."

"They have sent in their frontline aircraft, first the MiG-29 and now reportedly their latest acquisition the SU-30, which is quite a capable aircraft," Brig Qureshi said adding "but there are counters to such aircraft."