There was no immediate word from a 15-group umbrella organisation for militants fighting Indian trops in Jammu and Kashmir, but two of its members said they would fight on.

``Our war is not for withdrawal, but to move forward, so any appeal for withdrawal stands rejected,'' Fazalur Rehman Khalil, chief of Harakatul Mujahideen, told Reuters.

Harakat is one of the groups that says it is fighting intense battles with Indian troops in the Kargil sector and Drass, Batalik sub-sectors.

The group's training camps in Afghanistan were one of the targets of US cruise missile attacks launched last year against suspected hideouts of Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden.

Khalil said: ``If the Americans are interested in liberating Kashmir from Indian rule, we welcome them. But we basically don't trust them and I personally don't believe they willdeliver.

``Our fight will continue. In fact you will see an intensification in the next few days,'' he said.

Abdullah Muntazir, information secretary of the mujahideen Lashkar-e-Toiba group, referred to Tuesday's decision by the United Jehad Council that rejected Pakistan's pledge to the US to take ``concrete steps'' to defuse the crisis.

``Our council's decision was final. We have decided and I will repeat...The mujahideen will not withdraw.

``When they (Pakistani government) have lost on the diplomatic front, now they are requesting us take on ourselves a military defeat? Why would we do that?'' Muntazir said.

Muntazir questioned the government's wisdom in linking the withdrawal to Clinton's pledge to take a ``personal interest'' in kick-starting stalled Indo-Pakistani peace talks.

``What is the worth of Clinton's pledge when he will not be President after 18 months? And when India had not heeded a United Nations resolution for the past 50 years why do they (the government) think they wouldrespect someone's personal pledge?''

Muntazir said: ``We have to realise that all political means have been exhausted to resolve the Kashmir problem, armed struggle is the only way to liberate Kashmir.

``We challenge (prime minister) Nawaz Sharif to call a referendum and see for himself what the people want him to do. Nawaz Sharif is an elected prime minister but the people have not given him the mandate to sell out Kashmir.''