In this story:

• Ministers want 'quick action'
• Albright meets with Chinese, Russian ministers
• Sanctions, incentives omitted
• A genie better left in a bottle

GENEVA (CNN) -- Determined "to arrest the nuclear arms race in South Asia," the five official nuclear-weapons nations condemned recent nuclear tests by India and Pakistan, and asked them to refrain from further nuclear testing and engage in direct talks.

In a joint, 3 1/2-page communiqué, the foreign ministers of the United States, China, Russia, Britain and France "expressed their deep concern about the danger to peace and stability in the region, and pledged to cooperate closely in urgent efforts to prevent a nuclear and missile arms race in the Subcontinent. ..."

"The ministers agreed that quick action is needed to arrest the further escalation of regional tensions stimulated by the recent nuclear tests," the communiqué said.

The officials also asked the two countries to sign arms-limitation pacts and pledge not to export nuclear-weapons technology or materials. And they offered to help India and Pakistan reconcile their differences in their long-standing dispute over Kashmir.

Although India and Pakistan obviously possess nuclear-weapons capability, the ministers said after their two-hour meeting that they were not prepared to welcome the two into the nuclear club.

"India and Pakistan do not have the status of nuclear-weapons states in accordance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty," the communiqué stated.

In New Delhi, a foreign ministry spokesman said India would examine the communiqué before giving a response.

"It requires closer examination," he said. "The decision was that we will examine it and respond tomorrow (Friday)."

The Pakistani government had not yet responded to the communiqué.

Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan opened the meeting by saying that the five nations, which are the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, were united in their efforts.

"Tension in the region is mounting," Tang said. "The permanent members of the Security Council bear important responsibility toward world peace and stability."

He said the purpose of the meeting was "to channel our joint efforts to arrest the nuclear arms race in South Asia."

U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright met separately with Tang and Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov before diplomats from the five powers convened to approve the communiqué on the India-Pakistan crisis.

U.S. officials said Albright wanted to be sure that the traditional Russian tilt toward India, and Chinese support for Pakistan did not prevent the five from producing a strong joint statement.

Tang hinted at the Chinese inclination toward Pakistan in his description of the events of the past month.

"In May this year, India, in defiance of world opinion, went ahead with its nuclear tests," Tang said. "After the peace and stability in the South Asian region had been undermined, Pakistan also carried out nuclear tests."

Nevertheless, the five nations appeared united in their resolve.

Senior diplomats involved in the meeting, however, cautioned against expecting too much in the way of intervention by the major powers to avert a crisis. The key, they said, lies with India and Pakistan working out their differences.

The communiqué urges the two countries to hold direct talks on their disputes, and says the five powers will participate if necessary.

The communiqué also emphasizes the necessity of getting India and Pakistan involved in global arms control. It urges them to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty unconditionally -- meaning without any "rewards," such as permanent status on the Security Council or any changes in the obligations the treaty imposes on nuclear powers.

Conspicuously missing from the communiqué was any mention of sanctions or incentives designed to persuade India and Pakistan to step back from their nuclear standoff.

"The meeting is not about a set of incentives and disincentives; it is about putting a framework of goals on paper for the first time and laying out what we want to see," an official said. "We are powerless to resolve the India-Pakistan dispute overnight."

But the five agreed with Albright's proposal that India and Pakistan not be granted formal status as nuclear powers, which might be seen as rewarding states that defied the overwhelming objections of the world community by conducting nuclear tests.

Albright said the India-Pakistan situation was particularly tense because it involved enemies who share a disputed border and have fought three wars since they gained independence in 1947.

"These two countries are cheek-by-jowl," Albright told reporters at the State Department on Wednesday, shortly before departing for Switzerland. "So that creates a uniquely dangerous situation.

"Right now, the most important thing both sides can do is to cool it and take a deep breath and begin to climb out of the hole they have dug themselves into."

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, who originally welcomed Pakistan's tests as the coming of "the Islamic bomb," embraced the basic goal of the five powers.

"The nuclear sword of Damocles is now hanging over the region by a slender thread," Kharrazi told an international disarmament conference in Geneva. While the world knew that India and Pakistan possessed nuclear weapons, Kharrazi said, "This was one genie that was much better to have stayed confined in a bottle."