The Central Intelligence Agency has warned that another massive mobilisation of troops by India is imminent, as Pakistan continues to foment trouble in Jammu and Kashmir.

CIA Director George Tenet, appearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee on February 11 to testify on the subject of 'The Worldwide Threat in 2003: Evolving Dangers in a Complex World', said, "On the Pakistan-India border, the underlying cause of tension is unchanged, even though India's recent redeployment away from the border reduced the danger of imminent war."

Tenet argued that the 'cycles of tension between India and Pakistan are growing shorter', and said, "Pakistan continues to support groups that resist India's presence in Kashmir in an effort to bring India to the negotiating table.

"Indian frustration with continued terrorist attacks -- most of which it attributes to Pakistan -- causes New Delhi to reject any suggestion that it resume a dialogue with Islamabad."

Tenet, however, told the lawmakers that 'without progress on resolving Indian-Pakistani differences, any dramatic provocation -- like 2001's terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament by Kashmiri militants -- runs a high risk of sparking another major military deployment'.

"India and Pakistan continue to develop and produce nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them," he said.

Indian Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal, during his visit to Washington last week, had urged the US to exert maximum pressure on Pakistan to fulfil its pledge to permanently end cross-border terrorism. "India has made a very important gesture. We have eliminated any fears that existed about imminence of conflict in our region. We have taken a major step to reduce tensions and the response from Pakistan should be the implementation of its own commitments to end cross-border terrorism and Pakistan should be asked to do so.

"Because if it doesn't happen and terrorism continues and if there's again a very major attack," Sibal said, "we will unfortunately have to go through the entire scenario we went through the last time."

Tenet also acknowledged that 'the threat from Al Qaeda remains, even though we have made important strides in the war against terrorism'. The terrorist group 'continues to find refuge in the hinterlands of Pakistan and Afghanistan', he added.

He said, "The coalition against international terrorism is stronger, and we are reaping the benefits of unprecedented international cooperation. In particular, Muslim governments today better understand the threat Al Qaeda poses to them and day by day have been increasing their support."

In this regard he lauded the Pervez Musharraf regime. "Ever since Pakistan's decision to sever ties with the Taliban -- so critical to the success of Operation Enduring Freedom -- Islamabad's close cooperation in the war on terrorism has resulted in the capture of key Al Qaeda lieutenants and significant disruption of its regional network."

On the worldwide AIDS threat, Tenet said, "The intelligence community recently projected that by 2010, we may see as many as 100 million HIV-infected people outside Africa. China will have a about 15 million cases and India will have 20 to 25 million --higher than estimated for any country in the world.