New Delhi recalls its man in Islamabad

India is going to recall its senior diplomat from Pakistan and cut rail and bus links between the two countries, amid suspicion that hardline Pakistani elements were behind last week's suicide attack on parliament in New Delhi.

This will be the first such recall by India since 1971, when it and Pakistan went to war, a conflict that led to the breakaway of Pakistan's eastern part, which became Bangladesh.

The Indian external affairs spokeswoman, Nirupama Rao, said the severing of transport links would take effect from January 1, to allow people time to make their way home. The sole rail link is the twice-weekly Samjhauta Express between New Delhi and Lahore.

Pakistan, trying to maintain a sense of calm, refused to engage in tit-for-tat diplomacy, saying it would not withdraw its high commissioner.

A spokesman for Pakistan's foreign ministry, Aziz Ahmed Khan, said: "In the prevailing tense situation, it is all the more important to keep channels of communication."

But Pakistan did say it was concerned about an increase in Indian troop movements along the border and might take "appropriate counter-measures".

Ms Rao refused to say if the recall of India's high commissioner from Pakistan, Vijay Nambiar, amounted to breaking diplomatic relations. The recall is expected to happen early in the new year.

Both India and Pakistan are under enormous US pressure to refrain from fighting.

New Delhi's decision to sever diplomatic and transport ties ranks relatively low on the list of possible actions against Pakistan, say diplomats, and may be designed to appease Indian public opinion, which wants a military strike against Muslim separatists trying to wrest the disputed state of Kashmir from India's control. These extremists are blamed for the December 13 attack on parliament that left 14 people dead.

A decision on whether India will launch military strikes against training camps for militants in the Pakistani frontier area near Kashmir appears to depend on whether New Delhi sees Pakistan clamping down on the two main militant groups, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.

Ms Rao said that since the attack on parliament, "we have seen no attempt on the part of Pakistan to take action against the organisations involved". India wants Pakistan to arrest leaders of both groups and freeze their assets. Both groups have denied involvement in the attack.

Pakistan rejects India's claims that Islamabad's intelligence service, the ISI, supported the attack and said it would take no action until India supplied "credible" proof.

India responded by saying it had supplied proof to the US, Britain and other Indian allies.

A British Foreign Office spokesman was careful to avoid confirmation that it had such proof.

"We have very good cooperation between India and Pakistan on anti-terrorism issues but it is for India and Pakistan to resolve any differences they may have," the spokesman said.

Western diplomats cautioned against jumping to conclusions about who was responsible for the attack but praised India for its restraint.

The Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman, Mr Khan, said Islamabad regretted the recall of the Indian envoy, and was disappointed by the decision to halt transport services.

"Pakistan will persevere in its policy of restraint," he said.

The foreign ministry also expressed "deep concern" over what it described as reports of massive troop movements by India along the border in the Sind-Rajasthan sector, in the Chenab-Ravi corridor and along the Line of Control in Kashmir.

The president of the Pakistani region adjacent to Kashmir, Sardar Mohammed Anwar Khan, said that he had "ordered the civil defence to be in a state of preparedness... There won't be any neglect from our side".