New Delhi: India will use the upcoming visits of British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and US Secretary of State Colin Powell to push for greater pressure on Pakistan to stop militant attacks after the massacre of 28 people in Kashmir, officials said.

India will urge the visitors to force Pakistan to stem the flow of Islamic guerrillas from Pakistan's part of the disputed region, they said.

"It is now time for action," a top foreign ministry official said ahead of Straw's third South Asian visit this year from July 19.

"We need action. We have had enough of statements and assurances."

Powell will visit both capitals the following week to try to reduce tensions between India and Pakistan, which have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since independence from Britain in 1947.

Pakistan denies militants are crossing Kashmir's de facto border to attack Indian interests and says it gives only diplomatic and moral support to Muslim rebels who have been waging a bloody separatist campaign against Indian rule for the past 13 years.

The issue has brought the nuclear-armed rivals dangerously close to war in recent months, with around a million troops massed on their common borders.

The Indian official rejected speculation that the two visits could lead to the resumption of a dialogue with Pakistan, ruptured by an attack on the Indian parliament in December which left 14 people dead.

"There is simply no question of the resumption of a bilateral dialogue until the atmosphere is conductive, until Pakistan ends cross-border terrorism and until it winds down terrorist training camps," he said.

India blamed the Parliament attack on Pakistan-based guerrilla groups. Islamabad condemned the raid and in June launched its own crackdown against extremism following US pressure.

India says Pakistan is not doing enough to end cross-border militancy in Kashmir. Foreign ministry spokeswoman has said the visits by Straw and Powell could benefit India.

"We see in the visits an opportunity to put forward our views," she said.

Other senior officials said India was in no mood to accept sermons from either the US or Britain on the strained ties with its bitter rival. "We cannot be lectured while terrorists from Pakistan butcher innocent people at will," an official said of the July 13 massacre of 28 Hindus by Muslim militants near the Southern Kashmir city of Jammu.

On July 17, talks between Indian diplomats and a visiting Russian delegation headed by Moscow's first Deputy Foreign Minister Vyachaslav Trubnikov focused on Kashmir.

"India and Russia are strategic partners. Russia assessed India's position keeping this in view. The recent foreign ministry statement in Moscow had clearly said that Pakistan must fulfill its commitments to end (cross-border) infiltration and terrorism," said the spokeswoman.

On July 16, Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani made it clear that talks with the visiting Western diplomats were likely to focus on India's demand that Pakistan close the militant camps in its zone of Kashmir.

Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha on July 17 rejected US claims that infiltration into Kashmir had ebbed and said he would raise the issue with Powell.

"We will be taking the opportunity of (Powell's) visit to discuss with him the issues of infiltration, and also the larger issue of cross-border terrorism," Sinha said.