Highly placed sources in the Government said that even as New Delhi was preparing to embark on another diplomatic offensive with the US and France, Washington seemed to be using its clout with the UN to send a special envoy to South Asia.

``This is the beginning of the campaign to internationalise Kashmir, to try and punish India for daring to go nuclear,'' the sources said.

Late tonight the UN said Annan's special envoy to South Asia is scheduled to visit only Dhaka and Islamabad and New delhi is not on his itinerary.

``Alvaro De Soto is not going to India as New Delhi had indicated that it is not ready to receive him,'' chief spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

A spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs pointed out that that India had ``reiterated on many occasions thatthere is no scope for third-party involvement of any nature whatsoever in respect to India's relations with Pakistan. India-Pakistan issues are purely bilateral, to be resolved through bilateral dialogue.'' Foreign office sources said the stated aim of the UN special envoy to discuss ``regional tensions and issues'' was only a euphemism for Kashmir.

``The purpose of the visit was more or less clear to us. They wanted to talk about Indo-Pakistani matters, including Kashmir,'' the sources said. They admitted that nations like the US and the UK were using the June 6 Security Council resolution, that calls for ``monitoring'' the bilateral Indo-Pakistani dialogue, to turn up the heat on India.

But the ministry has also made a careful distinction between DeSoto and his team and a visit by the UN Secretary General himself, saying the latter is ``always welcome to visit India for discussions on global issues, including on global nuclear disarmament.''

Foreign office sources said the UN had been asking for datesfor DeSoto's visit to India since the Council resolution.

They felt that this rejection would not put off the UN, but that in fact pressure would build on India in the weeks preceding its General Assembly session in September.

Britain seems to have taken the lead in attempting to internationalise, what its foreign minister Robin Cook has often called the ``root cause of the tension,'' by allowing an official meeting with pro-Pakistani Kashmiri groups based in London.

The meeting with the British minister for Foreign and Commonwealth affairs Derek Fatchett and the Kashmiri groups yesterday came a few weeks after India had officially protested a meeting between Fatchett and the `Prime Minister of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir' Sultan Mehmood.

India had then warned the British foreign office that the Fatchett-Mehmood meeting would have ``negative consequences'' for the Indo-British bilateral relationship.

London went ahead with that meeting, causing substantial outrage in New Delhi.

Yesterday's meetingwent on for 45 minutes, the Kashmiri groups later saying that Fatchett had agreed that Kashmir was the core issue dividing India and Pakistan and could only be resolved with representation by the people of Kashmir, reports PTI.

Meanwhile, a second meeting between the Prime Minister's close aide Jaswant Singh and the US deputy secretary of state Strobe Talbott is being slated for the middle of July, while a team of ministry officials is heading for Paris within a few days.