India won key diplomatic support at the G8 summit yesterday in its battle with Pakistan over Kashmir, as its troops wrested a key Himalayan height from guerrilla infiltrators.
The G8 condemned the breach of the Line of Control in the bitterly disputed territory and called for an end to the fighting which has raged across the de-facto border dividing the two countries for the past month.
India hailed the statement and said it expected Pakistan to heed the call to ensure militants are pulled back.
With the prospects of an early diplomatic solution looking remote, Indian troops pressed on with their campaign to drive out guerrillas perched on ice-capped mountains in northern Kashmir.
India said it had recaptured the Point 5140 peak on the Tololing Ridge overlooking the strategic Srinagar-Leh highway in the Drass area, which forms a key area of combat.
The Home Minister, Mr Lal Krishna Advani, said the conflict would remain a "limited war" and it was only a matter of time before the invasion was "completely foiled".
More than 56,000 people had moved away from border villages in the Jammu region in recent days following shelling, Mr Advani told reporters.
Indian officials in Kashmir said the inhospitable terrain and snowy weather were hampering operations, which include hand-to-hand combat. India says it has lost 144 men, while 313 infiltrators had died.
India launched air strikes on May 26th against what it calls Pakistani infiltrators and mercenaries on its side of the control line, defined in an agreement after the last of their three wars in 1971. Pakistan says the guerrillas are freedom fighters.
The G8 statement implicitly backed India's intrusion claim:
"We are deeply concerned about the continuing military confrontation in Kashmir following the infiltration of armed intruders which violated the Line of Control," the G8 leaders said after their economic summit.
"We regard any action to change the status quo as irresponsible. We call for the immediate end of these actions, restoration of the Line of Control and for the parties to work for an immediate cessation of the fighting, full respect in the future for the Line of Control and the resumption of dialogue."
The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, said New Delhi wanted to resolve the crisis bilaterally.
In the Vatican, Pope John Paul said: "My thoughts are particularly with Europe, which bears the still bloodied wounded from the recent conflict in Yugoslavia, and with two Asian countries, India and Pakistan, where peace is gravely compromised."