HIGHLIGTES: Vajpayee Indicates Stepping Back From Option of War||India Claims Destroying 5 Bunkers in Pakistani-ruled Kashmir||Pakistan-ruled Kashmir Reports 'Complete Lull' in Cross-border Firing||Clashes Between Indian Troops & Kashmiri Nationalists Rage on|| STORY: India's prime minister said Pakistan's promises - not American pressure on New Delhi - have prevented war between the South Asian rivals.

In an interview published Monday, Atal Bihari Vajpayee also indicated New Delhi has stepped back from the option of armed conflict with Pakistan after a six-month standoff involving a million troops along the border.

"India's victory without war has its own significance," Vajpayee told Dainik Jagran, a Hindi-language newspaper, on Saturday in his first detailed comments on the crisis.

"Not just America, but other nations, mainly Britain, Russia and France, put intense pressure on Pakistan that cross-border terrorism must end and Pakistan must follow the path of peace."

Senior Indian defense ministry officials have credited intense U.S. diplomacy with averting war.

India said Monday its troops had destroyed four Pakistani bunkers in an exchange of fire across the military line of control dividing Kashmir.

A kerosene oil bunker was also set on fire in the Drass sector where four Pakistani bunkers were destroyed, the defense ministry said in a statement.

It said the two sides traded gunfire at several places along the 450-mile line of control and the international border in Kashmir.

PAKISTAN-RULED KASHMIR REPORTS 'COMPLETE LULL'IN FIRING

Police in Pakistan's Sialkot district said India and Pakistani forces fired mortars at each other overnight along the border between Punjab province and India's Jammu region.

"One house was badly damaged when a mortar bomb hit it early this morning in Chiprar sector," a police official said. "There was no loss of life."

Local officials in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-ruled Kashmir, said there was a "complete lull" in firing in all five districts of the state that borders Indian-controlled Kashmir.

"There has been no firing incident on the Line of Control since last night," an official told Reuters earlier Monday.
The two armies have traded heavy fire during the past month in Kashmir killing and wounding scores of civilians on both sides. Thousands of villagers have fled their homes near the border.

Fears of war between the nuclear-armed rivals have eased in recent days following U.S.-led diplomatic efforts and several confidence-building measures to reduce tension, although there are still nearly a million troops massed along the border between the two countries.

PHOTO CAPTION

Supporters of Pakistani religious party Jamiat Ulema Islam offer prayers for Kashmir Muslims during an anti-Indian protest Monday, June 17, 2002 in Karachi, Pakistan. The military standoff at the India-Pakistan border continues, with one million soldiers facing off along the tense border that separates the two countries. Placard behind reads "Kashmir movement is a freedom struggle, not Terrorism " and "International community should solve Kashmir issue" (AP Photo/Zia Mazhar)
- Jun 17 1:25 PM ET