Heavy shelling erupted on the India-Pakistan border today just a few hours after Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell ended a peace mission to the region.
Mr Powell ended his visit in New Delhi last night saying he believed the two nuclear-armed rivals were ready to try to avert war, and Pakistan's President Gen Pervez Musharraf said he was confident war would be avoided.
But with around a million troops eyeing each other nervously along the border, the two sides have traded fire on an almost daily basis since tension escalated last month, killing or wounding dozens of soldiers and civilians.
Witnesses in Pakistan said shelling erupted overnight along the disputed border in Pakistan's central province of Punjab, as the two sides traded mortar fire not far from the Pakistani town of Sialkot.
"There has been intense firing throughout the night," one witness said. Indian police on the other side of the border denied there had been any exchange of fire.
Gen Musharraf said last night it was up to India to make the next move to resolve the stand-off, after his efforts to curb pro-Kashmir Islamic militant groups blamed by India for an attack on its parliament on December 13th.
"I think I've been taking a lot of initiatives. It's high time that he (Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee) takes some initiatives himself as well," Gen Musharraf said.
Gen Musharraf has won widespread international praise for a speech last week in which he condemned terrorism and banned five militant Muslim groups, including two that India blamed for the attack on its parliament.
Since then Pakistan's government says it has rounded up almost 2,000 suspected militants and closed down 650 offices belonging to the banned groups.
"On our side we don't want war. We want to reduce tension and want to de-escalate," Gen Musharraf said.