TOKYO -- A special envoy of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on Monday asked top leaders of the G8 industrialized nations to help ease friction with its nuclear rival India, AFP quoted a Japanese official as saying.

Najmuddin Shaikh, a former foreign secretary of Pakistan, held talks lasting 25-minutes with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and argued the G8 leaders should make efforts to reduce tensions between the nuclear rivals in South Asia.

The G8 (group of eight) leaders "should discuss the importance of taking measures to ease tensions between India and Pakistan at a summit or other occasions," Shaikh told Koizumi, according to the Japanese official.

The top leaders of the G8 nations, which comprise Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States will gather in Canada for a summit on June 26-27.

Koizumi told Shaikh that both India and Pakistan should exercise restraint and added Japan would continue to offer its cooperation in this regard, the official said.

Last week G8 foreign ministers warned India and Pakistan that there would be no let up in the intense diplomatic drive to ensure their simmering crisis does not escalate into a nuclear war.

Relations between India and Pakistan have plummeted drastically over the past six months, with the two sides between them massing about one million troops along their common borders.