Pakistan must cooperate in Mumbai probe, Rice says

"I don't want to get into the specifics of what Pakistan may or may not do, but I am going to take as a firm commitment Pakistan's stated commitment to get to the bottom of this and to know these are enemies of Pakistan as well," Rice said.

India has long said Pakistan is unable or unwilling to act against anti India militant groups there. The latest attacks risk unravelling improved ties between the adversaries, who have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947.

With an election due by May, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is under pressure to craft a muscular response to opposition criticism, which has intensified since the attacks, that his ruling Congress party coalition is weak on security.

Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said military action was not being considered but warned that a peace process begun in 2004 was at risk if Pakistan did not act decisively.

"I informed Dr. Rice there is no doubt that the terrorist attacks in Mumbai were perpetrated by individuals who came from Pakistan and whose controllers are in Pakistan," he said.

"There is a design to strike at the developmental, scientific and economic activity of the country," he said, referring to a series of attacks on Indian cities this year.

Congress party head Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday spoke at an election rally at the ceasefire line in Kashmir, a mountainous area over which India and Pakistan have fought for six decades.

"India wants peaceful relations with all its neighbours, but this should not be taken as a weakness," she said.

A deterioration of ties could also put U.S. counter-terrorism efforts in the region at risk -- Islamabad has said the tensions may force it to shift troops from operations against al Qaeda militants on the Afghanistan border to the frontier with India.

India and Pakistan were on the brink of a fourth war in 2002, just a few years after both demonstrated nuclear weapons capabilities, following an attack on India's parliament by Islamist militants.

They pulled back after frantic diplomacy by the United States and other allies. But analysts in New Delhi say India is unlikely to provoke a military escalation this time around, since this would only play into the hands of Pakistani hawks and extremists. (Reporting by New Delhi, Mumbai, Islamabad and Washington bureaux and Adrian Croft in London; Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Bryson Hull; Editing by Simon Denyer)



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