NEW DELHI, Sept. 5 –– As Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee prepares to visit New York and Washington over the next 10 days, his aides are working to keep all controversial issues--especially India's conflict with Pakistan over Kashmir--off the agenda in his talks with U.S. officials and his appearance at the Millennium Summit of world leaders at the United Nations.

Indian officials also are doing logistical handsprings to make sure Vajpayee avoids bumping into Pakistan's military leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who plans to raise the Kashmir dispute at every opportunity in the U.N. session.

India hopes Vajpayee's visit to Washington next week will focus on the bilateral friendship that began when President Clinton visited here in March. Officials of both governments say they plan to emphasize the positive potential in U.S.-India business relationships, especially in information technology.

At the U.N. conference this week, Vajpayee will press India's long-standing case that its emergence as a democracy and an economic and nuclear power has earned it a seat on the Security Council.

U.S. officials say they are willing to cooperate with India's desire for a feel-good state visit by Vajpayee without any public discord. In reciprocal advance visits, U.S. and Indian officials have stressed areas on which Vajpayee and Clinton can formally agree, such as more open investment and cross-pollination in information technology. This week the Vajpayee government hinted that it will soon open India's long-distance telecommunications business, now monopolized by an Indian firm, to international competition--a step favored by the U.S. telecommunications industry.

"Both sides want to be able to sign a laundry list of accomplishments," a U.S. official said. The final joint statement by Clinton and Vajpayee "will not deal with any heavyweight issues," he said. "It doesn't mean there will not be pressure along with the happy face, but it will definitely be private."

For several years, the Clinton administration has pressed India on nuclear nonproliferation and the Kashmir dispute. Washington wants India to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and has imposed economic sanctions on India since it tested nuclear weapons in 1998. But India has resisted, saying it needs to build a national consensus on the test ban.

On Kashmir, the Himalayan territory claimed by both India and Pakistan and the site of two border wars between the countries, Clinton would like to help broker peace. But India adamantly opposes any U.S. role despite the new bilateral friendship, and hawks in the New Delhi establishment have been urging Vajpayee to reinforce that stand. "It is essential . . . that Mr. Vajpayee prepares himself to formally lay down . . . a few unmovable markers in India's approach to Kashmir," wrote columnist C. Raja Mohan in the newspaper The Hindu last week. "There can be no confusion about the unacceptability of third-party mediation."

Pakistan, on the other hand, is desperately seeking American or U.N. intervention in the conflict. While India demands that Pakistan stop backing Kashmiri guerrillas as a condition for peace talks, Pakistan believes that only its support for the guerrillas--and reminders that Kashmir is now a dangerous flashpoint between two nuclear states--will keep the issue alive.

Musharraf has openly sought a meeting with Vajpayee in New York, but Indian officials have ruled it out. Even Vajpayee's poor health, which has forced the 75-year-old prime minister to shorten his U.S. tour by several days, is being described by some as a blessing in disguise because it means he will not attend a New York luncheon that includes Musharraf.

Brajesh Mishra, Vajpayee's national security adviser, said a meeting between the two is "most unlikely." In an interview this week, he said that "Kashmir will not be discussed" with U.S. officials, calling it "an internal matter of India." He said "we will not talk of Kashmir, even if Pakistan raises it" at the U.N. summit.

Even though U.S. officials have said they will not embarrass Vajpayee by publicly raising Kashmir, they are hoping that the growing rapport between the two countries--which was long hampered by India's Soviet tilt during the Cold War--can increase U.S. leverage with New Delhi on the issue.

Washington is reluctant to strongly criticize Pakistan because it views Musharraf as a lesser evil than the country's politically potent Islamic fundamentalist groups. In an interview with the Hindustan Times newspaper this week, Clinton said only that he wants to "continue to work with Pakistan to help reduce the threat of terrorism in the region."

Vajpayee is to address a joint session of Congress and may have greater trouble avoiding difficult questions when he meets U.S. legislators, who might press India to take action on Kashmir as well as other areas of American concern, such as nuclear nonproliferation and child labor in Indian industry.

One reason New Delhi hopes to keep the tone of Vajpayee's visit bland and upbeat is to help ensure that the friendly mood of bilateral relations can be extended into whatever administration takes office next year. Analysts here said an administration headed by Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the Republican candidate, might be less inclined to press New Delhi on nuclear restraint and child labor. But Vajpayee also wants to keep doors open to Vice President Gore, the Democratic nominee, who will host him at a formal luncheon during his visit.