New York: At the height of the India-Pak border standoff between 2001 and 2002, US Secretary of State Colin Powell had called Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and had a "General to General" talk with him to discourage the rhetoric on using nuclear weapons and to reduce tensions.

Powell has talked to Musharraf at least 81 times since September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the US, often when the US was demanding something, 'New York Times' reported today.

There are times when the two men slip into "General to General" mode, it said, quoting State Department officials.

One such exchange, according to the officials, occurred in mid-2002, when India and Pakistan were engaging in alarming "chatter" about resorting to nuclear weapons.

Powell phoned Musharraf, but addressed him not as the Secretary of State to a President but as one former General to another.

"All this talk about nukes, you know, it's unthinkable," Powell told Musharraf, the daily said quoting officials. "I know that," Musharraf was said to have replied.

"Well, we've got to stop talking about it, and we've got to find a way out of this," the Secretary said, the officials recounted, adding that later that fall, tensions between India and Pakistan began to subside.

Whether the situation was eased by Powell's counsel or simply by the "sudden sobering" up of the leaders of India and Pakistan, the 'Times' said the story illustrates the intensity of the Pakistani-American relationship.