London: India considers itself "at war" with Pakistan over Kashmir, though there is no formal declaration of hostilities, Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani said.

"When people ask me 'will there be a war between India and Pakistan?' they are obviously referring to a declared war like that which happened in 1971 or 1965. But for India, we are at war," he told Britain's Channel Four television.

He said there was no point in resuming talks with Pakistan until cross-border terrorism was put to an end.

Advani, who is on a three-day visit to the United Kingdom, said cross-border terrorism "is still considerable, although there has been some reduction in infiltration because of international pressure on Pakistan".

"However, infiltration is only one aspect of cross-border terrorism. There are other components of cross-border terrorism, training of terrorists, financing them, providing arms to them, letting terrorist camps to continue to function on Pakistani soil."

Advani also observed that Pakistan has been under "great pressure", both internationally and internally.

"Having promoted fundamentalism to harass India, it is facing harassment itself to some extent," he said.

Advani accused Pakistan of sabotaging the forthcoming elections in Jammu and Kashmir by creating an atmosphere of fear in the state, but affirmed that the elections in the state would be held on schedule and would be fully fair and free.

PTI