India's worst race riots in a decade, in which nearly 900 people, mostly Muslims, have died, were on Friday described by western diplomats as genocide.
It is the first time foreign observers have issued such a damning verdict on the recent communal violence in the western state of Gujurat, in which there have been mass killings of the minority Muslim community by Hindu mobs. The criticism came at the end of a week of tense relations between India and the diplomatic community in Delhi.
On Friday new curfews were imposed on parts of Ahmedabad, Gujurat's largest city, after fresh Hindu-Muslim clashes.
Many of the latest casualties were caused by police firing as the authorities struggled to break up gangs of Hindus and Muslims hurling stones and acid at each other.
A spokesman for a group of senior western diplomats told the Financial Times the Gujurat killings were not just an internal matter for India but also a human rights issue of international concern.
He rejected comments by Atal Behari Vajpayee, the prime minister, that foreigners should not interfere in the Gujarat troubles, which have damaged his Hindu-nationalist BJP-led government.
Findings of several reports from the UK, Germany and the Netherlands, leaked to the media, said there was evidence of pre-planned killings of Muslims, that the BJP state government was complicit in the killings and that the death toll might be more than 2,000.
The leaked findings echo investigations by non-governmental organisations and human rights groups that have accused the state government of complicity in the killings of Muslims.
Relations between India and the diplomatic community hit a low last week when three ambassadors were rebuffed in an attempt to present concerns to Jaswant Singh, India's foreign minister.
One western diplomat involved said: "We see this as stonewalling and a sign of bad conscience.
"As for India's insistance that Gujarat is an internal matter, that's a specious argument. It's not an internal matter. It's genocide."