Britain's Prime Minister, Mr Blair, is to spearhead an Anglo-American diplomatic initiative to avert war between India and Pakistan when he visits the two nuclear powers within the next week.
As Delhi and Islamabad continued to trade recriminations over India's build-up of forces in the disputed territory of Kashmir, the prime minister was planning to plead with both countries to avoid conflict.
Downing Street refused last night to confirm Mr Blair's travel plans, which are being coordinated with American diplomatic efforts in the region. Mr Blair is expected to urge his Indian counterpart, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and the Pakistani president, Gen Pervez Musharraf, to resume direct talks.
But more killlings in Kashmir yesterday set a gloomy backdrop for Mr Blair's visit. The trip, which is believed to have been planned long before the recent flaring up of tensions, is being co-ordinated with Washington. Mr Blair had a lengthy telephon e conversation at the weekend with President Bush who is drawing up plans to send an envoy.
Mr Blair is not expected to travel to the subcontinent with a blueprint to try to solve the Kashmiri dispute, which has prompted a series of wars between India and Pakistan since independence in 1947. But American officials believe that Britain, as the former colonial power, can play a significant role in jumpstarting an intensive round of diplomacy.
Mr Jack Straw, Britain's Foreign Secretary, underlined the British approach on Monday night when he urged his Pakistani counterpart, Abdul Sattar, to resume talks with India.
The prime minister's new round of shuttle diplomacy follows a two-month period of relative quiet after his public humiliation at the hands of the Syrian president in Damascus in November. Critics said that Mr Blair failed to maintain his interest in the region after President Bashar al-Assad used a joint press conference to liken Hizbullah fighters in Lebanon to the Free French fighters of the 1940s.
Mr Blair is also believed to be particularly keen to mend fences with India after Mr Vajpayee took offence when the prime minister spent more time in Pakistan during his last visit to the subcontinent in the autumn.
Mr Straw welcomed the Pakistani clampdown on Kashmiri militant groups accused by India of carrying out the December 13th attack on its parliament.
But he said more needed to be done to avoid war and encouraged the Pakistani government to enter into dialogue with India, according to the Foreign Office.
Mr Straw said Britain was recognised as a "powerful force for good" around the globe.
In a New Year address to staff, Mr Straw said the US suicide hijackings, which prompted the war on terrorism, had shone a light on the "dedication and professionalism" of the staff of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
"September 11 had a deep impact on all of us," he said.
"Yet in the days that followed those harrowing events in the United States, few of us could have imagined that, on this New Year's Day, so many people would be freed of fear and oppression and that the Union Flag would once more fly over the British Embassy in Kabul."
British peacekeeping troops are in the Afghan capital Kabul but deployment of the full International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was still on hold last night.
Despite assurances that a deal has been done, those countries involved have still not signed the military and technical agreement with the interim Afghan government.