A few hours earlier India's Home Minister L.K. Advani launched a broadside against nuclear rival Pakistan during a visit to Washington, signalling there would be no let-up in the diplomatic or military tensions engulfing South Asia.

Defence officials in Islamabad said they had received the first batch of 40 Chinese-made F-7PG fighters in December and the rest would be delivered this year.

"The delivery of the planes and the deal itself have no connection at all with the current crisis between India and Pakistan. It was a deal which was made early last year," one official said.

Pakistani officials also denied local press reports that China had supplied new defence equipment to Pakistan to bolster its capability in the current stand-off with India.

India's foreign ministry spokeswoman said the reports of the delivery of the planes was an "issue of concern for us". India will take steps to safeguard its security concerns, she added.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who is preparing a major policy speech on militancy, has visited his country's key ally China twice in less than a month.

Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji is due to visit India Sunday, but Beijing has said he will not be attempting to resolve tensions between Islamabad and New Delhi.

In Washington Advani called for immediate action from Pakistan on Indian demands for a crackdown against militant groups, which India brands terrorists.

"Pakistan must act -- sincerely, decisively, demonstrably and speedily," he said in a statement.

The demands include the handover of 20 militants and the closure of training camps, arms supply routes and funding of "terrorist" groups on Pakistani soil.

Pakistani authorities have arrested the leaders and other members of two groups, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba, which India blames for carrying out the December attack on its parliament which triggered the current crisis.

New Delhi says that Islamabad has not gone far enough and has ruled out talks until Islamabad takes more action to shut down the militant organisations.

But Pakistan reiterated calls for negotiations to defuse the risk of war, saying present levels of troop deployments on the common border risked an "accidental outbreak".

"We have called for the withdrawal of forces and obviously until such time that the forces remain deployed, the tension will remain and the dangers of an accidental outbreak cannot be ruled out," foreign ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan said.

"We don't want war but we should be prepared for war. Pakistan's defence is very important."

Cross-border firing between the massed troops continued Thursday, killing two boys, aged four and eight, in Indian Kashmir, according to Indian defence sources.

The boys were playing outside their house in the village of Kasba in the southern Poonch district when heavy firing began from the Pakistani side, the sources said.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who met with Advani in Washington, announced he would be going on a peace mission to the region next week, following hot on the heels of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who visited India and Pakistan earlier this week.

Meanwhile Pope John Paul II urged India and Pakistan to favour "dialogue and negotiation".

"I must mention the tensions which have once more set India and Pakistan at odds, in order earnestly to request the political leaders of these great nations to give absolute priority to dialogue and negotiation," the 81-year-old pontiff said in a New Year address to diplomats.

But adding to the signs that the military stand-off is likely to drag on, The Hindu newspaper here said India would not withdraw its troops from its western border with Pakistan soon as they were part of a strategy to negotiate a deal with Islamabad.

"The mobilisation of ground troops along the borders is central to the strategy that will strengthen India's hands during future negotiations," it said, quoting Indian government sources.

"The mobilisation has been central to the intense international pressure now being imposed on President Pervez Musharraf for a crackdown on terrorists of all hues."

Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes made a flying visit to Kashmir to review security arrangements in the state, where both sides have massed troops along the Line of Control -- the de facto border that divides the Muslim-majority Himalayan state between India and Pakistan.

The Indian Kashmir government said it had drawn up contingency plans for residents living near the border with Pakistan in the event of war.

Thousands of people have fled their homes along the border fearing that war could break out between the nuclear foes.

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