India's participation in the World Cup has been thrown in doubt, after sports minister Uma Bharti again refused to sanction matches against Pakistan. "If Uma Bharti has her way, India and Pakistan may never play cricket again - anywhere, anytime and in any tournament," reported India's Today newspaper.

"Tuesday's militant attack in Jammu has led the sports minister to harden her stance, barely hours after she had approached Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to discuss resumption of cricketing ties with Pakistan."

But Bharti was unrepentant: "When they are playing with blood, how can we play cricket with them," she was quoted as saying. "The nation will not accept this."

India has blamed Pakistan for Tuesday's attack by suspected Muslim militants on a passenger bus and an army camp near Kashmir's winter capital Jammu. The attacks left 35 people dead, most of them women and children.

India and Pakistan last met on a cricket field in May 2000, just before the Indian government put a blanket ban on playing cricket against Pakistan.

Bharti was reportedly considering a request by India's cricket chief Jagmohan Dalmiya to permit matches against Pakistan at neutral venues, and had even met the prime minister to discuss the matter.

But the militant attack in Jammu "changed her stance unequivocally," the newspaper said, adding that the consequences could be far-reaching.

"Bharti's latest statement could not only throw the International Cricket Council's ambitious ten-year Test calendar into jeopardy, but also dangled a question mark over India's participation in prestigious tournaments like the World Cup and the Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka in September."

India is scheduled to play a league match against Pakistan in the World Cup in South Africa next year. The two countries have, however, been drawn in separate groups in the Champions Trophy, but will have to face each other if they make the final.

The newspaper said that Dalmiya, under pressure from the world governing body, was meeting Bharti regularly to change the government's stance. The government appeared to have softened its stance lately, but Tuesday's attack had scuttled any plans to revive cricketing ties.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd