NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD, 27 January — Pakistan called for peace talks with India yesterday and said it will not be provoked into responding to India’s test of its nuclear-capable Agni missile on Friday. India proudly showed its latest missile arsenal at a parade marking the 52nd year of the country becoming a republic.

In a message to Indian Indian President K.R. Narayanan, Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said he wanted the two nuclear rivals to be good neighbors. "I would like to reiterate our readiness to engage in a serious and sustained dialogue with India to commence together a journey of peace and progress," he said.

"Pakistan desires to establish tension-free and good neighborly relations with India," he said in the message.

Musharraf told senior armed forces officers Friday at their headquarters in Rawalpindi that there was no reason for India to escalate tensions, and said it was up to India to take the next step toward reducing tensions.

However, Pakistan’s armed forces were capable of facing any aggression and of causing "unacceptable damage to the enemy", he was quoted as saying by the official Associated Press of Pakistan.

India’s test from the Chandipur test range off the eastern coastal state of Orissa drew a strong response from Pakistan which described it as a threat to regional security, especially at a time of heightened tensions between Islamabad and New Delhi.

Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar told CNN late Friday the test of the short-range missile "is bound to be considered unwise, if not reckless, at a time that is very tense".

Pakistan would not respond with its own missile test, he said. "Our government has decided that we will not be provoked into responding to India’s test, because... by doing that, we will fall into the Indian way of dealing with the situation. That is, adding provocation, adding to the threat on the borders, adding tension to tension."

Pakistan had postponed testing its own nuclear-capable missile and would wait for "a degree of normalcy" to return to the relationship with India before considering whether a test was necessary.

The two sides have massed a million men along their border and imposed tit-for-tat diplomatic and aviation sanctions in a row sparked by a Dec. 13 suicide raid on India’s Parliament. Indian and Pakistani troops traded heavy mortar and machine-gun fire across their border in the disputed Kashmir region, an Indian defense spokesman said. He said there were Pakistani casualties, but could not give a figure.

India, the world’s biggest democracy, celebrated the anniversary of its birth as a republic with heavily armed security forces in the streets and unprecedented security across the nation in case of fresh attacks. The main Republic Day parade in the capital proudly displayed its military might that included a prototype of the Agni missile.

Across the nation, tens of thousands of police and paramilitary troops on full alert guarded ceremonies and key buildings but crowds were smaller than usual. The airspace over New Delhi was closed between 8.00 a.m. (0230 GMT) and 10.00 a.m. (0430 GMT), as intelligence intercepts feared militants could use planes to disrupt the parade. Train services were also temporarily stopped as the parade passed under a railway bridge, police said. "Are we celebrating our Republic Day, or are we under siege?" asked Virender Kumar, a newspaper shop worker in contested Kashmir, where security was tightest.

Radio Afghanistan, meanwhile, said Afghan security forces have seized an arms cache of a Kashmiri group in a village close to the Pakistani border. Hand grenades, anti-personnel mines, mortar shells and many rounds of ammunition belonging to the Lashkar-e-Taiba group were found in the Zarkano district of Kunar province, located along the border north of the Khyber Pass, it said.