India yesterday condemned Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's speech, which it was hoped would cool the Kashmir crisis, as "disappointing and dangerous".

On a day when Pakistan defied international opinion with the test firing of a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, India's foreign minister said Musharraf had "engaged in an offensive and tasteless revilement of India".

Speaking in New Delhi, Jaswant Singh said it was "disappointing as it merely repeats some earlier reassurances that remain unfulfilled today. Dangerous because of deliberate posturing, tensions have been added, not reduced".

General Musharraf said on Monday that Pakistan would not initiate war, but would defend itself if "war was thrust upon it".

As tensions have steadily escalated on the border between the nuclear-armed rivals, the world has grown worried that another war could escalate into a nuclear conflagration.