"Our goal should be victory because now the time has come for a decisive fight and in this war we will win... We have to fight our own war, we are ready for it, we are prepared for it," Vajpayee said.

He was speaking during a morale-boosting tour of frontline areas near Kupwara in northern Kashmir where Indian troops are engaged in fierce artillery duels with Pakistani units across the border.

The clashes have raised international fears of a new war between the nuclear-armed rivals.

"My coming here is also an indication of something, whether the neighbour (Pakistan) understands it or not, (the) world understands or not, but history will remember it and we will write a new history of victory," Vajpayee said in his speech which was broadcast live on television channels.

On Tuesday Vajpayee visited a hospital in Jammu that is treating some of those injured in an attack by Islamic militants last week on an army base near Jammu, in which 35 people died.

The attack dramatically heightened tensions between India and Pakistan, with New Delhi blaming Pakistan, booting out Islamabad's high commissioner (ambassador) and, according to many analysts, taking steps to prepare for a military strike.

"The enemy has found a new way to fight. It does not fight a face-to-face fight... it is now fighting a proxy war," Vajpayee said.

"Hired mercenaries, lured by money and shown dreams of heaven, are being sent here to be sacrificed. They don't fight wars, they kill innocent people."

Vajpayee said he had seen the "barbaric" results of the Jammu attack when he visited the hospital.

"What war is this, what fight is this in which children and women are targeted? Children are snatched from their mothers and killed? What animosity do they have against children?" he said.

"We want peace, our plan is to develop, we want to make India a developed nation and fight poverty and unemployment, but we are fighting against this war forced on us.

"We will fight this and we will be victorious.

"Today again we are being tested but we have confidence on our soldiers, our army and behind the army are one billion people. They are also a line of defence. They will also work towards victory."

Though Vajpayee did not mention Pakistan by name, he warned India's arch-rival that it should not think that India will remain tolerant forever.

Refering to the six-week Kargil conflict between India and Pakistan in 1999, Vajpayee said, "You know what happened then. Every inch was vacated. The enemy could not even carry back their dead. They left their dead behind. We buried them because a soldier when he is dead is not an enemy. We respect the dead soldiers also.

"We know how to respect the enemy also, but it should not be seen as our weakness. No one should think that we will continue to extend the threshold of our tolerance. No one should think that we are not alert and vigilant."

Addressing the soldiers earlier, Defence Minister George Fernandes said his men were ready for action.

"The soldiers are itching to face any kind of eventuality," he said. "I have spoken to them over the past three to four months at several places. They have only asked me one thing: 'When do we attack.' Nothing else."

Kupwara, where the prime minister addressed Indian troops, is approximately 20 kilometres (12-16 miles) from the Line of Control (LoC) -- the de facto border which divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

India and Kashmir have fought two full-scale wars over Kashmir which is divided between them and claimed by both.

All rights reserved. � 2002 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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