State Department spokesman James Rubin said both India and Pakistan had clearly violated the agreement over the past two days and acknowledged that Washington's concern had been strongly conveyed to the envoys of both countries here by Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Karl Inderfurth.

"We urgently call on both sides to re-institute this agreement in order to avoid further loss of life and further escalation and heightening of tensions," Rubin said. In discussions with the envoys of the two nations, Rubin noted, "we have urged restraint and dialogue to resolve this incident and we will continue to be meeting with senior officials here as well as in Islamabad and New Delhi."

Rubin however reiterated that the U.S. has no intention to mediate in the latestconflict or the Kashmir dispute unless both sides request it to do so. "What our policy is, is that we have said we will only mediate or involve ourselves in the work that is being done if both parties want us to.

That is with respect to a resolution of the Kashmir dispute," he said. Asked if the U.S. was giving any consideration to any U.N. action on this dispute, Rubin said, "Not at this point." "I believe Pakistan would like to see that happen," he noted. "I'm not saying we're not considering that, but I don't believe we're taking an affirmative step towards that at this time."

But in the final analysis, Rubin asserted, "we also act in our national interest." He said: "When the Kargil situation threatened to escalate to dangerous proportions, the President (Bill Clinton) did meet with (Pakistani) Prime Minister (Nawaz) Sharif and was instrumental in developing and urging an approach that led to the resolution of the problem."

"So, while we may not necessarily come down in each case on a factualquestion as a so-called referee, we do believe we have a role to play," he noted.

Rubin explained that under the terms of the 1991 agreement covering military flights near the border, prompt investigation is required in the event of a violation "and the headquarters of the other air force is informed without delay through diplomatic channels."

He noted that in emergency situations, "designated authorities are to contact each other immediately and can use the telephone line established between the army headquarters of the two countries." Thus, Rubin said, "instead of contacting each other, to shoot down the plane is clearly not consistent with the objective of the agreement."

"A non-notification is one level of problem; a shoot-down is a whole more serious level of action inconsistent with the agreement," he added.

Rubin said Inderfurth had briefed Secretary of State Madeleine Albright "extensively" on the events of the past two days, but there is no thought as of yet of sending a U.S. troubleshooterto the region.

The spokesman said in the wake of the recent developments, he did not hold out much hope for relations between India and Pakistan to blossom and dialogue to resume any time soon. "It's hard to be optimistic at this stage. If anything, today's (Wednesday's) events are an indication that we're going in the wrong direction. Both sides continue to blame the other; they continue to make claims," he said.

Rubin acknowledged that "we don't have any ability to confirm in this part of the world with precision precisely where the aircraft was when it was shot down." But, he said, "we do believe that there was a mechnism to deal with such problems and clearly that mechanism was not used prior to the shoot-down. Instead a plane was shot down, and, as I said, we regret very much the loss of life."

However, Rubin added, "Hopefully, both sides will see that neither has anything to gain by an escalation of this conflict and that reason and cooler heads will prevail and that the people of India andPakistan's interests will be put above petty political interests."