Rice urges Pakistan to work with India
Wednesday, 03 Dec 2008 19:42
US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice urges Pakistan to cooperate
US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice has urged
Pakistan to work with India in investigating last week's terror attacks in Mumbai.
During the joint press conference with India's foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee, Ms Rice said Islamabad "needs to act with resolve and urgency and cooperate fully and transparently" with India.
India claims the ten gunmen had been trained in Pakistan and is stepping up pressure on the government to extradite 20 alleged terror suspects.
In her comments, Ms Rice compared last week's events in Mumbai to the terrorist attacks in New York in September 2001.
"Whether there is a direct al-Qaida hand or not, this is clearly the kind of terrorism in which al-Qaida participates.
"It's a sense that you want to not just terrorise in a general sense, but you try and send a strong message that people are not safe, that businesses are not safe, that economic centres are not safe.
"We experienced that in New York."
Diplomatic relations between India and Pakistan have become increasingly strained since the attacks, in which at least 171 people were killed.
Pakistan's president Asif Ali Zardari has refused India's request to extradite the suspects, instead offering to try them in Pakistan.