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LONDON, May 26 (AFP) - Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto told Western countries on Sunday they must press for democracy in Pakistan if its nuclear crisis with India is to be neutralised.

"I think what the West really needs to do is encourage the democratic process in Pakistan," Bhutto told BBC television.

Pakistan tested a second anti-ballistic missile early on Sunday as it continued to flex its military muscles in the face of challenges from India.

"I think this is the most serious threat that Pakistan has faced in its history," said Bhutto.

"Indian patience seems to have run out and the two countries are facing each other with nuclear-tipped missiles that could destroy the lives of 30 million people or more."

India accuses Pakistan of arming and sending Islamic militants into the Himalayan state of Kashmir, where a Muslim rebellion has raged for 12 years. Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both.

Pakistan says it only gives the Kashmiri guerrilla groups moral and political support.

While tension had been simmering since December's attack on the Indian parliament, the spark for the latest sharp deterioration in relations was an attack on May 14 by militants on a bus and a military camp at Kaluchak, near Kashmir's southern winter capital of Jammu in which 35 people died.

"I believe that democracies do not go to war," said Bhutto.

"That is the lesson of history and I think that a democratic Pakistan is the world communities best guarantee of stability in Asia," she added.

"Elections have been promised for October this year and the West could tell India to wait until those elections are held, ensure that the elections are fair and depend on a democratic government to build peace."

Bhutto, who twice governed Pakistan, is keen to contest the elections. But Pakistani leader General Pervez Musharraf has so far refused to allow her or her former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, to participate.

Bhutto left Pakistan shortly before she was convicted in a corruption case in 1999 and since then she has divided her time between London and Dubai.

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