Analysis
By Zaffar Abbas BBC correspondent, Islamabad

Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, has apparently refused to succumb to the international pressure to change his country's policy on Kashmir and has instead warned India against any attempt to impose war on Pakistan.

Although he denounced terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, General Musharraf refused to make any significant departure from Pakistan's stated position on the dispute over Kashmir

The move is likely to annoy the United States and other Western countries, but it seems that General Musharraf is prepared to take the risk, largely because of domestic pressure.

The stand taken by General Musharraf in his speech shows that unlike in the case of Afghanistan, where his government had wasted no time in dumping the Taleban to please the United States, it is much more difficult to reverse the country's Kashmir policy.

General Musharraf is certainly under immense international pressure to rein in the separatist militants involved in the armed insurgency in Indian-administered Kashmir.

But the tone and tenor of his speech suggests that he is still not willing to do so at the cost of annoying the pro-Kashmiri public opinion at home.

Calculated risk

Although he denounced terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, General Musharraf refused to make any significant departure from Pakistan's stated position on the dispute over Kashmir.

He referred to the armed insurgency in Indian-administered Kashmir as a freedom struggle, strongly refuted the impression of any cross-border incursions from the Pakistani side of the control line and asked for international intervention to solve the long-standing dispute over the status of the Himalayan state.

His speech is likely to be welcomed by many people at home, but may not go down well with the world leaders, particularly US president George W Bush, who has been calling for firm action against the Kashmiri militants.

By refusing to alter Pakistan's Kashmir policy in a big way, General Musharraf has taken a calculated risk.

Observers say it is based on the presumption that even if the United States is annoyed with Pakistan, it may not like to break the relationship - for as long as it requires Islamabad's continuous support in the ongoing war against terrorism in Afghanistan.