The British Prime Minister arrived in the Indian city of Bangalore this morning ahead of top-level talks aimed at easing tensions between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan.
Mr Tony Blair, who has spoken with US President Bush about defusing the crisis, is due to meet Indian Prime Minister Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee on Sunday before heading to Pakistan.
Earlier, a high-profile regional summit in Nepal was postponed for a day when bad weather delayed the arrival of Pakistani President Gen Pervez Musharraf.
Gen Musharraf was due to meet Indian Prime Minister Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee at the opening of the summit of leaders from the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC).
Although face-to-face talks have so far been ruled out, it would be their first meeting in six months and the highest-level contact between the two nuclear powers since ties sunk to a 30-year low after the December 13th attack on the Indian parliament.
Gen Musharraf travelled via China to the summit after India banned all Pakistani planes from its airspace in a series of tit-for-tat measures sparked by the assault on the New Delhi parliament.
In Beijing, Gen Musharraf told Premier Zhu Rongji that: "Pakistan hopes for peace, opposes war, and is willing to work to ease the current tensions [with India] through dialogue".
Mr Vajpayee arrived in the Nepalese capital yesterday also vowing to pursue peace rather than war.
India and Pakistan have massed soldiers on their border since the parliament attack and exchanged gunfire in Kashmir, the focal point of their half-century rivalry.
AFP