AS Foreign Secretary and Blackburn MP Jack Straw prepared to make a statement to the House of Commons on the current crisis in Kashmir today he spoke exclusively to the Lancashire Evening Telegraph's political correspondent Bill Jacobs about his hopes and fears...

Jack Straw today urged the tens of thousands of Kashmiris, Pakistanis and Indians in East Lancashire to "keep calm" despite the prospect of war and nuclear conflict over the disputed territory on the sub continent.

Mr Straw promised that Britain was fully engaged with the Americans and the United Nations in trying to find a solution.

He said: "We have a very large Asian population in East Lancashire -- 30,000 in Blackburn split 50/50 between India and Pakistan. A lot of the people from Pakistan come from Mirpur on the western edge of Pakistan administered Azad Kashmir.

"These people are obviously all very concerned about what is happening. I know these communities well and that has obviously been very helpful when dealing with Kashmir as Foreign Secretary."

Mr Straw has also visited the region a number of times, including his honeymoon in India 24 years ago with wife Alice, which included staying in a village in Gujerat with the family of Lord Adam Patel of Blackburn.

He said: "It varies from day to day but the likelihood of a conventional conflict is significant to high.

"The possibility of a nuclear conflict is lower but not zero.

"A nuclear conflict will be catastrophic and the country that launches the weapons will become an international pariah.

"I would urge the leaders of India and Pakistan to remember what happened to Hiroshima and Nagasaki when much smaller nuclear weapons were used."

Mr Straw repeated his advice to Asian and other British citizens not to go to the area while the tension was so high but said there were signs of improvement.

He said that Pakistan had made promises to stop terrorist incursions across the Line of Control between Pakistani and Indian Kashmir and there was some possibility of a ceasefire.

He said: "There is intensive diplomacy going on involving myself, the Prime Minister, the Americans and the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. If we can stop the military activity and start negotiation things can get better.

"It must be a bilateral solution but there may be some way of administering the two parts of Kashmir that meets both the Indian and Pakistani needs."

"The international community can only help."