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Josy Joseph in Kathmandu
India on Saturday strongly reacted to reports that the United States was planning to appoint a special envoy to end tension between India and Pakistan.
External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh told reporters that he was not aware of any such appointment.
"The United States has missions in both New Delhi and Islamabad. Unless the missions are not up to the mark, I don't think there is an occasion for such an appointment," Singh said.
United States Secretary of State Colin Powell had said on Friday that the US was planning to appoint a special envoy to India and Pakistan for defusing tension between the two.
The decision, it was reported, would be taken after the SAARC summit.
"We are anxious to see the situation stabilise, and we hope the (military) mobilisations halt quickly," Powell had said.
Launching a scathing attack on Pakistan, the foreign minister said that India would not accept terrorism as a 'pre-dialogue negotiating tactics'.
He asked Pakistan not to put the 'pistol of terrorism' on his temple demanding resumption of dialogue.
"I can't accept that terrorism is a pre-dialogue negotiating tactics," he said, pointing out that by such a tactics Pakistan would only be strengthening the terrorists.
Singh ruled out any meeting between Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf or himself and Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar in Kathmandu.
He said he was still hopeful of a bilateral dialogue between India and Pakistan, but for that materialise the later will have to take meaningful steps to end terrorism from its soil.
He pointed out that the immediate step that Pakistan could take is to announce that it would not permit any terrorists to operate from its soil.
He said dialogue between the two countries was an 'article of faith', but it cannot be a 'public relations exercise'.
"India-Pakistan relation is not a public relations exercise. It affects millions of people separated in the two countries," he said.
The minister said he accepts the fact Pakistan would need sometime to dismantle terrorism from its land.
The minister said that India was very appreciative of steps taken by General Musharraf in the wake of December 13 attack on Parliament, but added that the steps were not sufficient.
He said Pakistan took action against the leaders of Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Tayiba 'not because we said, but because somebody else told you'.
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