Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee called on Pakistan Tuesday to shed its "anti-India" mentality and crush terrorist groups on its soil to allow a dialogue on all bilateral disputes, including Kashmir.

In a special article published on New Year's Day, Vajpayee also warned the Indian people to be prepared for any eventuality in the light of the "unprecedented" crisis that has brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war.

"As I have said earlier, India does not want war. But we have a sovereign right to defend ourselves against cross-border terrorism, which is a proxy war that is already thrust on us," Vajpayee said.

"Pakistan will be solely responsible for the consequences of encouraging terrorism against India," he added.

The open article released to the press was written against the biggest military build-up on the Indo-Pakistan border for 30 years, following the December 13 attack on the Indian parliament that New Delhi says was carried out by Pakistan-based militants at the behest of Pakistani military intelligence.

Islamabad has firmly denied any involvement.

The article was dominated by Indo-Pakistan ties, and contained a specific appeal to the government in Islamabad.

"Shed your anti-India mentality and take effective steps to stop crossborder terrorism, and you will find India willing to walk more than half the distance to work closely with Pakistan to resolve, through dialogue, any issue, including the contentious issue of Jammu and Kashmir," Vajpayee

said.

India accuses Pakistan of arming and training Muslim militants fighting Indian rule in Kashmir. Islamabad denies the charge but lends open moral and diplomatic support to what it terms the Kashmiri "freedom struggle."

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since winning independence from Britsh rule in 1947 -- two of them over Kashmir.

Vajpayee argued that India had demonstrated its sincerity for peace on several occasions, including the prime minister's 1999 landmark bus trip to Lahore, his summit invitation to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in July this year and the government's six-month unilateral suspension of counter-insurgency operations in Kashmir, which ended in May.

"Our efforts will be further intensified, if Pakistan demonstrates its matching sincerity to have peace with India," Vajpayee said, adding that both countries should fight together against their common enemies of poverty, illiteracy, disease and unemployment.

"This is the challenge of the New Year and of the new century. Let us accept it in a spirit of cooperation."

At the same time, Vajpayee stressed that any dialogue was preconditioned on Pakistan making the "right choice" on combatting terrorism and called on the international community to pressure Islamabad in that direction.

"We shall triumph against terrorism -- to defend India, to defend humanity. Let this be every Indian's New Year resolve," the article concluded.