http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/2345127.stm

Monday, 21 October, 2002, 09:53 GMT 10:53 UK
Blair sold jets at Kashmir talks

Two thirds of the jets would be built in India

Tony Blair used a private meeting with his Indian
counterpart to push the sale of British Hawk jets while
urging peace with Pakistan, it has been confirmed.

The prime minister raised the deal - estimated to be
worth £1bn - with Atal Behari Vajpayee at Chequers on
Saturday as hundreds of thousands of troops remained
at a stand-off in the disputed region of Kashmir.

Downing Street and the Foreign Office stressed the
Hawks, made by Britain's biggest defence manufacturer
BAE Systems, were training jets.

But they can easily be converted for combat, as has
happened in Indonesia.

And Mr Blair's intervention is
likely to revive Labour
unease over arms sales.

Officials stressed any deal
would be subject to the usual
"rigorous" controls.

But two thirds of the jets
would be built in India by the
state-run Hindustan
Aeronautics company, according to The Guardian
newspaper.

A Downing Street spokeswoman said: "We make no
apology for supporting a legitimate defence industry."

Flashpoint

Kashmir, India's only Muslim majority state, has been a
flashpoint of hostility between India and Pakistan for
five decades.

Since 1947 the states have fought two of their three
wars over the disputed Himalayan territory - the first in
1947-8, the second in 1965.

The state was placed under direct rule between 1990
and 1996 when Muslim insurgency was at its height.

Tensions have been rising again since December last
year when India blamed Pakistan-based militants for an
attack on the parliament in Delhi - a charge Pakistan
has denied.

The crisis saw about one million troops being drawn up
on the border, but on Wednesday the two nuclear
powers began to withdraw troops in a massive
de-escalation in tension.