Britain upgrades India's Jaguar jets for nuclear use; Nuclear

Despite an assurance from Pakistan's military leader General Pervez Musharraf that a nuclear war with India is "unthinkable", thousands of British, US and other Western nationals yesterday began leaving India and Pakistan.

With one million troops now massed and ready for war on the India- Pakistan border and keeping up a steady exchange of mortar and machine-gun fire, Musharraf insisted nuclear weapons would not be fired. "I don't think either side is that irresponsible to go to that limit," he said.

Initial reports suggested that India had reacted with suspicion to Musharraf's comments.

The British High Commission in New Delhi confirmed that it had received orders from the Foreign Office on Friday to contact all 30,000 British nationals in northwest India and urge them to leave the country.

Continuing fears over the threat of all-out war has led to US President George Bush sending Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to the region this week, while Russian President Vladimir Putin hopes to bring the two sides together at a meeting today in Kazakhstan to be attended by Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Meanwhile Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who visited the region last week, has confirmed that the UK government is to push ahead with arms sales to the two sides, including a (pounds) 1 billion deal to sell more than 60 Hawk jets to India.

Jaguar bombers, supplied to India by Britain last year, are also being upgraded to give them the capability to carry nuclear missiles. BAE Systems has so far licensed the production of 126 Jaguars in India. BAE Systems also trains Pakistani pilots at a training college in Wales.

Meanwhile Pakistan's army has a long tradition of training its officers at Sandhurst, Surrey, which is also the primary training college for British officers.

In 2000 Britain granted some 700 defence export licences to companies selling weapons to India, worth around (pounds) 64.5 million. These included components for surface-to-air missiles, aircraft machine guns, armoured personnel carriers, combat aircraft, torpedoes and combat helicopters. The UK also sold military aircraft engines to India, military communications equipment, riot control equipment and surface-to-air missiles.

Richard Bingley of the Campaign Against The Arms Trade (CATT) said the arms sales to the subcontinent and the refusal to put an unequivocal embargo in place represented "the final nail in the coffin of an ethical foreign policy - if that ever existed".

India is estimated to have up to 150 nuclear warheads, and Pakistan up to 50. Last month Pakistan tested ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads deep into India.

Reflecting growing unease among Indians, the latest edition of the respected magazine India Today carries a cover picture of urban workers fleeing an orange mushroom cloud over the Gateway of India in Bombay.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said in an interview yesterday: "I think both sides recognise that the most horrific thing that could happen in the year 2002 is, for the second time in history, for a nuclear exchange to take place."

For Britons in India the Foreign Office advice to leave the country meant holidays and business trips being abandoned. For some long-term residents it meant leaving home, with the nagging possibility that in a couple of weeks' time there may be no home to go back to. Most Indians regarded the move with irritation and amusement.

Non-essential High Commission workers are leaving, with just a skeleton staff of 40 left to man Britain's biggest overseas mission. Fifteen members of staff, their partners and children flew out of New Delhi on four different flights. More will follow in the next few days.

Alec Hind, from Kirkcaldy in Fife, is set to leave India on Wednesday. "This news took us by surprise on Friday night," he said. "But the government is making this recommendation and they know best what's going on. Personally I believe a conflict of some type is likely, and everybody is worried about the nuclear aspect.

"Some expats are moving down to Kerala in the far south in the hope that they will be safe down there, where they can still do business.

"The Foreign Office advice is an extreme step - that's what's making people take notice. There's no panic but most foreigners are making plans to leave. I don't know anybody who says they will stay here no matter what."

The British High Commission refused to say whether plans had been drawn up for a Saigon-style evacuation. But it is widely believed that the "get out of India" warning may have been issued partly to start mobilising the huge number of Britons in the country ahead of an emergency evacuation.

Two grenade attacks in Indian Kashmir yesterday killed one civilian and wounded 24 people. The incident followed two similar assaults on Friday.

India blames the attacks on militants armed and trained by Pakistan who are fighting Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan region.

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