Washington, June 05: US President George W Bush in telephonic talks with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf today called upon the two leaders to reduce tensions and initiate dialogue. We will help the two parties to the degree they think is wise and welcome... Fundamentally this is an issue on which India and Paksitan need to talk to each other to help reduce tension, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said giving details about bush`s telephonic conversation.

Fleischer said that Bush personally appealed to Vajpayee and Musharraf to choose the path of diplomacy and take steps that will ease tensions in the region and reduce the risk of war. With a call to Musharraf to be true to his promise regarding the fight against terrorism, bush said The US expects Pakistan to live upto the commitment it made to end all support for terrorism.

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The president also asked India to respond with de-escalatory steps, Fleischer said.

Bush placed his back-to-back calls to Vajpayee and Musharraf soon after a strong travel warning to US nationals with an advice to leave the two countries.
Bureau Report