The Frontier Post in a June 20 article, said: ``Clearly, we have not only failed to convince the international community that the fighters up on the Kargil peaks were Kashmiri freedom-fighters or that the LoC was not properly demarcated, but we also changed our (own) public position about it. This can be seen from the reactions of both the P-5 and the G-8 countries,'' it said.

``If the Kargil initiative had been part of some larger strategic design, it would have been possible to appreciate it. But the way it was handled diplomatically and on the media front was no less than a fiasco,'' the Post added.

An editorial in the Pakistan Times on June 19 is no less revealing. ``There is no gainsaying Pakistan'sisolation at present...It will be a lame excuse if the country's leadership contents itself by saying that the US and other good friends have taken a somersault in favour of the adversary,'' it said.

Meanwhile the Pakistan government sought to put a positive spin on the G-8 statement, saying it was a vindication of its stand that India should immediately stop military action against the infiltrators.

Foreign Office spokesman Tariq Altaf struck a more aggressive note later in the day, accusing India of being on the "war path" and saying any "misadventure" across the LoC would be "rued" by New Delhi.

Asked where the situation would lead to after the bilateral dialogue between India and Pakistan snapped following New Delhi's stand that first Drass and Kargil areas be cleared of infiltrators, Altaf said, "I hope we don't go where India wants to take us because that is a perilous path with serious consequences."

Sharif's China visit

Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif is scheduled to undertake a "workingvisit" to China -- his second this year -- on June 28, Chinese officials said on Monday. The visit, at the invitation of Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji, will see Sharif meeting President Jiang Zemin, among others.