3 December 2008

NEW DELHI - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in New Delhi Wednesday to try to ease India-Pakistan tensions over the Mumbai attacks, as US intelligence blamed a Pakistan-based militant group.

Ties between the nuclear-armed South Asian rivals became strained in the wake of late November's devastating assault by Islamist militants on India's economic capital which left 188 people dead.

An Indian government source told AFP that Rice will be presented evidence of a Pakistan link to the attack.

"We will put on the table information so far gathered. We plan to share transcripts of satellite phone conversations that link the terrorists to their Pakistani handlers," the senior official said on condition of anonymity.

"We have evidence of numbers recovered from phones (that show) where the calls came from or were made to," he added.

A senior State Department official said Rice would pressure the two US allies, who fought three wars against each other since their 1947 independence from British rule, to cooperate in eradicating terrorism.

"I want to consult with the Indian government on what we can do to help," Rice told reporters on her way to India. "I am going to, of course, express solidarity with the Indian people. This was a horrible attack."

India says the only gunman captured confirmed under interrogation that all the militants were from Pakistan and received their training there.

The United States is particularly concerned about any military confrontation with India that might cause Pakistan to move troops from its western border with Afghanistan, a battleground in the US "war on terror".

Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group fighting Indian control of disputed Kashmir, is a lead suspect. The group attacked the Indian parliament in December 2001, bringing India and Pakistan close to fighting another war.

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