BEIJING, Aug. 2 Kyodo -- Pakistan will not start a war with India, Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf assured his Chinese counterpart Jiang Zemin during a one-day stopover in China on Friday, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

Stating that Pakistan does not want to be involved in a war, the report quoted Musharraf as pledging his country will do its best to achieve peace and stability in South Asia

Jiang told Musharraf that China supports all efforts to alleviate the tension between Pakistan and India and to safeguard peace and stability in South Asia.

Musharraf stopped in China on his way home following official visits to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

India's ongoing preparations to hold elections in the Indian-administered portion of divided Kashmir raise concerns that tensions could flare up again between India and Pakistan over the troubled area, which has already sparked two wars between the two nuclear-armed nations.

Musharraf has roundly denied India's claims that Pakistan still supports Kashmiri militants who have waged a violent separatist campaign in the region since late 1989 that has left more than 25,000 dead and several thousands injured.

India and Pakistan have massed about a million troops along their border and along the Line of Control dividing Kashmir since a terrorist attack on the Indian parliament in December last year that New Delhi blames on Pakistan-based militants.

Tensions escalated further in May after Islamic militants attacked a bus and stormed a nearby army camp in Indian Kashmir, killing over 30 people, mostly wives and children of soldiers.

Though tensions have eased in recent weeks there has been no de-escalation of forces from either side.