PARIS — President Bush urged Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to do more to end acts of terror in Indian sections of disputed Kashmir, suggesting Sunday they were more worrisome than the two missile tests Pakistan conducted over the weekend.
Bush and French President Jacques Chirac agreed to press the war against terrorists on many fronts.
"They'd like to strike again. These are cold-blooded killers," Bush said with Chirac at his side.
At a joint news conference at the French presidential palace, Bush appeared to soften earlier criticism of Pakistan's missile tests to put more emphasis on terrorism.
"I'm more concerned about insisting along with other world leaders ... that President Musharraf show results in terms of stopping people from crossing the Line of Control," Bush said, referring to the cease-fire line that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
Tensions between the two nuclear-armed nations escalated after an attack last week killed 34 people on the India side of the line.
Bush said it's up to Musharraf to do more to prevent Pakistani militants from carrying out such assaults.
"That's what's more important than the missile testing, that he perform," Bush said.
Other Bush administration officials took the same tack Sunday as Pakistan launched its second medium-range missile test in as many days.
"Well, I would rather they hadn't done that," Secretary of State Colin Powell said on CNN's "Late Edition." But, he added, "it doesn't seem to have caused the crisis to get any worse."
"The timing is not particularly good," Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, told "FOX News Sunday." She called on Musharraf "to live up to the obligations ... to stop cross-border infiltrations across the Line of Control."
France was the third country on Bush's weeklong tour of Europe. On Monday, he will visit the beaches of Normandy for a Memorial Day ceremony honoring soldiers killed in the June 6, 1944, D-Day invasion during World War II.
"This Memorial Day is the first Memorial Day in a long time in which younger Americans know firsthand the price that was paid for their freedom," Bush said in a preview of the speech he will give.
Several thousand people marched through central Paris on Sunday to protest Bush's two-day visit to France. Some chanted, "Bush, you are the terrorist," and burned American flags.
"The fact that protesters show up, that's good. I mean, I'm in a democracy," Bush said when asked about the street protests here and during his visits last week to Germany and Russia.
At the news conference, Bush appeared tired and at one point lost track of a three-part question. "I'm jet-lagged," he said. "That's what happens when you're over 55," he added. Bush turns 56 in July.
Bush and Chirac said they discussed Bush's desire to expand the war on terrorism beyond Afghanistan. Most French citizens, shocked by the Sept. 11 attacks, expressed strong sympathy for the United States immediately afterward, but have since begun to object to civilian casualties in the war on terror.
Bush praised France as a "decisive ally" in the anti-terror effort, taking the lead in hunting down suspected terrorists and sharing intelligence. "For that I'm very grateful, Mr. President," Bush told Chirac.
For his part, Chirac urged world leaders to "pay attention to this issue and be determined to eradicate terrorism."
The two presidents also discussed Bush's visit to Russia, which ended earlier Sunday; and warming ties between Russia and NATO that will be codified in a document to be signed this week in Italy.
While the two presidents exchanged praise, Chirac also chided Bush on two trade issues: U.S. tariffs on European steel and a newly enacted law that boosts subsidies to U.S. farmers — running afoul of World Trade Organization fair-trade rules. Europe also subsidizes its farmers.
"Real answers have to be given to these problems, after intense consultation and dialogue," Chirac said.
Asked about Russia's nuclear assistance to Iran, Bush repeated concerns he raised in his meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He said Putin discussed the possibility of having inspectors examine a nuclear plant in Iran that Russia is helping to build — to verify it would not be used to make weapons. "And we're thinking about what he told us," Bush said.
Bush was also asked about U.S. policy toward Iraq. He said it had not changed.