SINGAPORE: Pakistan and India are close to reducing the troop buildup along their border to levels before the conflict erupted between the nuclear-armed neighbours earlier this month, a top Pakistani military official said on Friday, although he warned the crisis had increased the risk of escalation in the future.

Both sides used fighter jets, missiles, drones and artillery in four days of clashes, their worst fighting in decades, before a ceasefire was announced.

The spark for the latest fighting was an April 22 attack in India-held Kashmir`s Pahalgam area that killed 26 people, most of them tourists.

New Delhi blamed the incident on `terrorists` backed by Pakistan, a charge denied by Islamabad. Pakistan offered independent inquiry into the incident, but India did not agree.

On May 7, India launched missiles across the border and as Pakistan responded with its own attacks, both countries built up additional forces along the frontier.

General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, said in an interview with Reuters that the two militaries had started the process of drawing down troop levels.

`We have almost come back to the pre22nd April situation... we are approaching that, or we must have approached that by now,` said Gen Mirza, the most senior Pakistani military official to speak publicly since the conflict.

The Indian defence ministry and the office of the Indian chief of defence staff did not immediately respond to Reuters` requests for comment on Gen Mirza`s remarks.

Gen Mirza, who is in Singapore to attend the Shangri-La Dialogue forum, said while there was no move towards nuclear weapons during this conflict, it was a dangerous situation.

`Nothing happened this time,` he said. `But you can`t rule out any strategic miscalculation at any time, becausewhen the crisis is on, the responses are different.

He also said the risk of escalation in the future had increased since the fighting this time was not limited to the disputed territory of Kashmir.

`This (conflict) lowers the threshold between two countries who are contiguous nuclear powers...in the future, it will not be restricted to the disputed territory. It would come down to (the) whole of India and (the) whole of Pakistan, Gen Mirza said. `This is a very dangerous trend.

The rapid escalation of hostilities ended in part because of behind-thescenes diplomacy involving the US, India and Pakistan, and the key role played by Washington in brokering peace. India has denied any third-party role in the ceasefire and said that any engagement between India and Pakistan has to be bilateral.

But Gen Mirza warned that international mediation might be difficult in the future because of a lack of crisis management mechanisms between the countries.

`The time window for the international community to intervene would now be very less, and I would say that damage and destruction may take place even before that time window is exploited by the international community,` he said.

Pakistan was open to dialogue, he added, but beyond a crisis hotline between the directors general of military operations and some hotlines at the tactical level on the border, there was no other communication between the two countries.

Gen Mirza said there were no backchannel discussions, or informal talks, to ease tensions. He also said he had no plans to meet General Anil Chauhan, India`s chief of defence staff, who is also in Singapore for the Shangri-La forum.

`These issues can only be resolved by dialogue and consultations, on the table.

They cannot be resolved on the battlefield,` Gen Mirza said.-Reuters