US Secretary of State Colin Powell has arrived in the Indian capital Delhi at the start of a tour of south-east Asia to push for talks over the disputed region of Kashmir.

American diplomacy played a key role in bringing India and Pakistan back from the brink of war over the region in June, but the underlying conflict is far from resolved.

We don't want to be back where we were a few months ago

Colin Powell

Correspondents say that on his third visit to the region in less than 10 months, Mr Powell is likely to get a frosty reception and find little willingness to compromise.

Hours before he arrived in Delhi, Indian and Pakistani troops exchanged small-arms and mortar fire over the disputed border, and up to seven people were killed in skirmishes in the Kashmir region.

Mr Powell's visit also coincides with the beginning of three days of official mourning after the death of the Indian vice president on Saturday morning.

Powell cautious

Delhi is the US secretary of state's first stop on his tour of six south-east Asian countries.

Despite a gradual easing of tensions, Indian officials say they still have major concerns over the alleged infiltration of Islamic militants from Pakistani territory into Indian-administered Kashmir.

Mr Powell said that while he was in Delhi he would be sharing his own information about infiltration levels.

Powell: "We have to get to dialogue"

He will then move on to Pakistan, which says it wants dialogue with India - something Delhi opposes until, it says, it has evidence that President Pervez Musharraf is cracking down on militants.

Before arriving in Delhi, Mr Powell said a dialogue between India and Pakistan was essential.

"We don't want to be back where we were a few months ago, a few months from now," he told reporters during a re-fuelling stop in Italy.

A few months ago, the two nuclear-capable countries appeared to be on the verge of going to war over Kashmir, sparking intense diplomatic efforts by the international community.

Slow progress

Mr Powell said he was not expecting a breakthrough "of the kind we saw a month or so ago".

"I just want to see what both sides might be willing to do to keep going down the escalatory ladder," he said.

Musharraf says he wants dialogue with India

Mr Powell is the latest in a long series of high-profile foreign diplomats visiting the region in an effort to reduce tensions between the nuclear-capable neighbours.

Our Delhi correspondent says it is hard to see how he will be able to broker a dialogue.

India disagrees with US assertions that militant incursions have dropped significantly under General Musharraf's orders.

Delhi feels it got little in return for complying with US demands to reduce tensions earlier this year - this time they may be less willing to compromise, our correspondent says.

Continuing violence

Meanwhile, Indian and Pakistani troops traded fresh fire across their heavily militarized frontier in Kashmir.

No casualties were reported in the overnight dual in the Kupwara sector, which Indian police blamed on "unprovoked fire" by Pakistani troops.

Powell tour

India Pakistan Thailand Malaysia Singapore Brunei Indonesia Philippines

But three people died in separatist-linked clashes in the Indian zone of Kashmir, and a grenade attack in a crowded market in the town of Budgam left at least two civilians dead and injured at least seven others.

India and Pakistan have deployed one million troops along their common borders since last December, when an attack on the Indian parliament killed 14 people.

The two countries both claim ownership of Kashmir and have fought two of their three wars over it since gaining independence in 1947.