``We regard any military action to change the status quo as irresponsible. We therefore call for the immediate end of these actions, restoration of the LoC and for the parties to work for an immediate cessation of the fighting, full respect in the future for the LoC and the full resumption of the dialogue between India and Pakistan in the spirit of the Lahore Declaration,'' the statement on `Kashmir' at the conclusion of the G-8 Cologne summit, said.

Buoyed by the unalloyed support of the world's most powerful grouping, despite its refusal to bluntly describe the nature of the ``armed intruders'', New Delhi welcomed the statement and said it expected Pakistan to immediately end the intrusion.

``Weexpect that Pakistan will heed this call and act to immediately put an end to its irresponsible conduct and fully restore the status quo ante on the LoC. Until that happens the action of our armed forces will continue,'' the spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs said.

He said it was ``absurd to think'' that despite the fact Pakistan had not been directly named in the G-8 statement, the reference to the ``infiltration of armed intruders'' could be to any other country.

Clearly, the G-8 statement shows that even an inveterate doubter like Japan, seems to have fallen in line with the view openly espoused in recent weeks by the United States and the European Union. Tokyo had refused to criticise the armed intrusion so far, saying it did not have ``sufficient evidence'' to do so.

In retrospect, at least the first phase of New Delhi's strategy of targeting key Western nations, especially the US, seems to have worked. Now the government must not only focus on keeping up the diplomatic pressure,analysts said, but also push for that pressure to have effect.

In fact, the letter carried by Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra from the Prime Minister to US President Bill Clinton last week, contains the seeds of what could be termed future course of action. Since the US and the European Union have these past weeks, been reiterating and advising ``restraint'' on the government, basically implying that India should keep its fighting to its own side of the LoC and not cross it, Vajpayee's letter is believed to hint at further action. ``Very obliquely,'' highly placed sources said, ``the letter also puts out the message that if Western diplomatic pressure on Pakistan doesn't work,''

India would have to contemplate other measures to take back its territory. Nevertheless, it is unlikely that New Delhi at this point will attempt action that will boomerang and have the effect of frittering away accumulated diplomatic gain. Further, the military action seems to be also going according to plan -- Point 5140was recaptured today in the Drass sector, clearing the entire ridgeline. Now only the Tiger Hill feature needs to be retaken, after which the entire Drass sector will be cleared of enemy intrusion. Official sources, pointing to the ``spirit''of the G-8 statement as well as its ``sequential'' nature, felt it was the clearest indictment of Pakistan yet. They pointed out that the G-8 was ``deeply concerned'' about the attempt to alter the status quo of the LoC, and first of all, were calling for the immediate end of the fighting.

Second, they wanted the sanctity of the LoC to be restored, meaning, that both sides should fall back to their original positions on either side of the LoC before the fighting began. Only then could both parties work together, the official sources felt, and resume dialogue in the spirit of the Lahore Declaration.

``India has been the initiator of this dialogue. But once this armed intrusion is reversed and status quo ante established, it would be possible to get the dialogue back ontrack,'' the spokesman said.

Pak troops on standby: Russian daily