The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, New Delhi

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in New Delhi Wednesday to try and 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 have become strained in the wake of last week'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 handed 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 he not be named.

"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 have fought three wars since their 1947 independence from British rule-to cooperate in wiping out terrorism.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff arrived in Islamabad on Wednesday as part of U.S. diplomatic efforts to defuse tensions between Pakistan and India after last week's militant attacks on Mumbai.

Admiral Mike Mullen flew in for talks with Pakistan's 8-month-old civilian government and military officials hours after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in New Delhi for talks with the Indian leadership about the crisis.

"He'll be meeting with government officials and counterparts on regional issues," said Lou Fintor, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy.

Rice is expected to go to Islamabad later in the week, according to officials. Mullen's visit was expected to be a short one and it was uncertain whether they would both be in Pakistan at the same time.

India has accused "elements in Pakistan" of being behind the Mumbai attacks which killed at least 171 people, including Americans and other foreigners.

The one gunman captured has told investigators he belonged to the Lashkar-e-Taiba Islamist militant group and had received training in Pakistan, according to Indian officials.

The attack has sparked fears that the two nuclear-armed neighbours could slide towards a fourth war since independence from Britain in 1947 unless cool heads prevail.

"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 has confirmed under interrogation that all the militants were from Pakistan and received their training there.

The United States is particularly concerned about any military stand-off with India that might see Pakistan move troops from its western border with Afghanistan-a crucial battleground in the US "war on terror".

Suspicion has fallen on Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group fighting Indian control of disputed Kashmir. The group was behind a December 2001 assault on the Indian parliament that brought India and Pakistan to the brink of another war.

US Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell on Tuesday said the Pakistan-based group was the focus of investigations.

"The same group that we believe is responsible for Mumbai had a similar attack in 2006," he said. "Go back to 2001 and it was an attack on the parliament."

India called in the Pakistani ambassador earlier this week and demanded Pakistan arrest and extradite 20 terror suspects, including the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hafiz Saeed.

Others named were Maulana Masood Azhar, chief of the Jaish-e-Mohammed rebel group, and Dawood Ibrahim, wanted in India on charges of masterminding serial bombings in Mumbai in 1993 that killed around 300 people.

Pakistan has suggested setting up a "joint investigation mechanism" but says it wants concrete proof that all the attackers were Pakistanis.

"The state of Pakistan is no way responsible," Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari told CNN.

"I think these are stateless actors who have been operating throughout the region. The gunmen, whoever they are, they are all stateless actors who are holding hostage the whole world."

India's security and intelligence agencies have come under intense criticism over their handling of the incident, which has already forced the resignation of interior minister Shivraj Patil.

US networks this week reported that the United States had warned India in October that hotels and business centres in Mumbai would be targeted by attackers coming from the sea.

One US intelligence official even named the Taj Mahal hotel, one of 10 sites hit in the 60-hour siege by gunmen, as a specific target, ABC television said.