The President of Pakistan, Gen Pervez Musharraf, said last night his country's relations with India are "at their lowest ebb".
Speaking at Harvard University, Gen Musharraf also accused India of "intransigence". He said the two countries' forces "confront each other eyeball to eyeball with most dangerous possibilities of the eruption of conflict by accident or design".
His comments come as the two nuclear rivals continue fire artillery over the contested province of Kashmir. A civilian and a soldier died in the latest shelling. Indian officials called the shelling the most intense in weeks; Pakistani officials called it "routine."
Gen Musharraf repeated his support for the international anti-terrorism effort and said Islamic radicals must be held in check in his nation and elsewhere.
But he said: "We must diagnose the malaise and treat the root causes of terrorism. What is it that conjures up such storms in the mind? What motivates a suicide bomber that his instinct for survival is overcome by a death wish?"
Gen Musharraf is in the United States for the start of the annual debate at the UN General Assembly.
AP