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NEW DELHI, Jan 13 (AFP) - US President George W. Bush called Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee Sunday to say he "appreciated" New Delhi's reponse to Pakistan's pledge to crackdown on Islamic extremists.

Bush said in a telephone call Sunday evening that he "appreciated India's response" to President Pervez Musharraf's pledge Saturday, a spokesman for Vajpayee said.

"Bush (also) assured Vajpayee that he would continue to work with India to counter terrorism," the spokesman said, adding the US president's call had lasted eight minutes.

India has offered a guarded welcome to Musharraf's banning Saturday of five Islamic militant groups, including two New Delhi has blamed for the December 13 attack on parliament.

New Delhi also said it would do its part to ease the stand-off between the two countries if the Pakistani leader's actions measured up to his words.

Military tensions between the two nuclear rivals has escalated since the deadly raid on parliament, with both sides massing troops on their border.

Earlier Sunday, US Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke with Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh on Musharraf's announcements, made in a televised address from Islamabad on Saturday.

Singh said India welcomed Musharraf's "now declared commitment not to support or permit any more the use of its territory for terrorism anywhere in the world, including in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir."

But he added: "We would assess the effectiveness of this commitment only by the concrete action taken."

Singh also spoke with his Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov on the current security situation in South Asia.

The US, Russia, France, China and several other countries have urged India and Pakistan, who have already fought three wars since independence in 1947, to rachet down the tensions between them. 

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