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ISLAMABAD, Jan 24 (AFP) - United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan will meet Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf here Thursday after calling on Islamabad and New Delhi to do more to defuse tensions.

With the nuclear neighbours poised for war after India blamed two Pakistan-based militant groups for the deadly December 13 attack on its parliament, Annan said he had been in touch with both sides about the need to calm tempers.

He arrived in Islamabad Wednesday night for talks which will also aim to shore up regional support for rebuilding Afghanistan. When he flies to Kabul Friday, he will become the first UN secretary general to visit the war-torn nation since 1959.

On arrival in Islamabad, Annan said Musharraf's landmark address to the nation earlier this month, in which he announced a crackdown on extremist groups, was a good start to defusing tensions with India.

"I think it is a step in the right direction, and we need to build up on that," he was quoted by the official Associated Press of Pakistan as saying.

Annan told CNN ahead of his arrival there was no alternative to a political and diplomatic solution to the stand-off between the two nations, which has seen an estimated 800,000 troops amassed on their border.

"I believe that the two will have to find a way to resolve their differences politically and diplomatically," Annan said.

Annan had wanted to visit New Delhi as part of his regional tour but said Wednesday night "we couldn't coordinate our calendars".

He is due to meet Musharraf early Thursday evening after talks with Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar and UN officials in the Pakistani capital.

A Pakistani foreign ministry official said Thursday he expected Annan to receive a Kashmiri women's delegation which would "apprise him of the human rights situation in Indian-occupied Kashmir".

Pakistan has said it would welcome UN engagement in helping to settle the dispute over the divided state of Kashmir, which has been the cause of two of the three wars between the nuclear neighbours. But India has ruled out a role for any third party.

Afghanistan is the major focus of the UN leader's visit to the region, following the Tokyo conference of donor countries earlier this week which pledged 4.5 billion dollars for Afghan reconstruction over five years.

"Now we have to get down to business and begin the process of reconstruction," he said on arrival in Islamabad.

One immediate concern is the threat of lawlessness and factional fighting as the interim administration attempts to unify the ethnically diverse nation.

"During his visit to the region the secretary general will be urging neighbours to work more closely together to keep the security situation in Afghanistan stable, arguing that it is in their common interest," a UN statement said.

The southern city of Kandahar was not secure, there was tension in Kabul and factional fighting in the north, the UN spokeswoman in Islamabad, Stephanie Bunker, said Wednesday.

Annan will visit Iran, another of Afghanistan's neighbours, following his trip to Kabul. 

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