US urging calm over Pakistan troop moves

U.S. officials watched with growing concern today as reports suggested Pakistan was massing troops to the India border.

Such a move raises double-barreled worries: A possible confrontation between two nuclear powers and a shift by the Pakistani military away from battling the Taliban along its western Afghan edge.

U.S. intelligence and military officials were still trying to determine what Troop Formations are on the move, and, what Pakistan's intent may be.

Officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, was in Pakistan twice this month, and as many as seven times in the past year. In recent meetings with senior Pakistani leaders he has urged restraint and encouraged both sides to find ways to work together.

One senior military official said today that the U.S. is monitoring the issue, but still could confirm assertions from Pakistani intelligence officials that some troops were on the move, heading to the Indian border.

A key concern for U.S. officials is that some of those troops may have been stationed along the volatile Afghan border, and were being diverted to the Indian side.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Mullen, who have both been in the region in recent weeks, have expressed the hope that Pakistan would stay focused on fighting militants in its mountainous northwestern Federally Administered Tribal Areas, or FATA.