He gave this assurance to a delegation of BJP workers from the state when it met him here on Wednesday.

In Kargil, while defence forces claimed to have succeeded in pushing the Pakistani infiltrators back by three and a half kilometres so far, fivecivilians were killed in intensified cross-border shelling by Pakistani troops in the Batalik area on Wednesday.

Indian troops retaliated but there was no immediate report of loss of life on the other side, official reports reaching here from Srinagar said.

The reports also said that a building in the periphery of the television transmitter in Kargil went up in flames when it was hit by an artillery shell fired from across the border in the afternoon. However, the television tower was safe and there was no immediate report of loss of life in the incident.

In capital,the deputy director general of military operations Mohan Bhandari informed newspersons that army took some important heights held by the infiltrators in the Batalik sub-sector, killing eight intruders and wounding five, while air force fighters and helicopter gunships carried out attacks for the eighth day on Wednesday.

However, there were still four to five key positions in the mountains that had to be annexed, Bhandari said adding that the continous shelling by the artillery was taking a psychological toll on the intruders and their morale was very low. He said infiltrators had intruded up to 6.5 kilometres into the Indian territory.

Bhandari said appropriate force levels had been deployed in the Kargil sector to facilitate speedy execution of operations,rugged terrain configuration and inhospitable weather conditions notwithstanding.

Giving casualty figures, he said as of yesterday they stood at 46 dead, 174 wounded and 12 missing since May 8. As for intruders, 400 of them are estimated to have beenkilled.

While operations to flush out the infiltrators would continue, an external affairs ministry spokesperson said here that it would be"prudent" for the intruders to voluntarily move backwards to the Pakistani side of the line of control (LoC) to end the conflict.

"The military is taking action to cut off supply and sustenance routes and end the armed intrusion. Before that should they (intruders) wish to withdraw, it would be prudent for them to do so (voluntarily) as it would end the cause of the conflict," the spokesperson said.

The Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee also said in Mumbai that the government would consider offering safe passage to the infiltrators if they asked for it. Defence minister George Fernandes had already made the offer on Tuesday.

The main opposition Congress party, has, however, taken strong exception to the offer said the minister had let down the jawans with his "unwarranted, untimely, irresponsible and demoralising" statement.

K Natwar Singh, party's externalaffairs department chief, told newspersons that Fernandes obviosly was more concerned about the well-being of the aggressors than the defence of the nation.

He was trying to please Pakistani Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz before his visit to New Delhi, he said.

Natwar Singh also considered Prime Minister Vajpayee's endorsement of Fernandes' statement as "unfortunate" and wanted to know when the government took such a decision. Even the National Security Council was yet to meet, he said.

Without doubting the integrity of the Defence Minister, he said this had led the world to believe that India did not have any foreign or defence policy.