Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown holds a news conference in Brussels December 12, 2008. REUTERS/Yves...
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown blamed banned Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba for last month's deadly Mumbai attacks as tension between nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan simmered on Sunday. Pakistan said on Saturday Indian warplanes had inadvertently violated its airspace, but New Delhi later denied the incident and accused Islamabad of trying to divert attention. In talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi and later with Pakistan's Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari in Islamabad, Brown offered both countries help in tightening security and combatting terrorism. In Islamabad, Brown proposed a new British-Pakistan "pact against terror", saying "three-quarters of the most serious terrorist plots investigated by the British authorities have links to al Qaeda in Pakistan". "The time has come for action, not words," he said. Brown also said he had asked Singh and Zardari for permission for British police to question suspects arrested in both countries in connection with last month's Mumbai attacks. India, backed by the United States, has called on Pakistan to crack down on Pakistan-based militant groups after the attacks, in which 179 people were killed during a three-day siege in India's financial heart. It blames Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a militant group it says was set up by Pakistan to fight Indian rule in the disputed Kashmir region, for the Mumbai attacks. "The group responsible for the attacks is LeT and they have a great deal to answer for, and I hope to convey some of the views of the Indian prime minister to the president of Pakistan when I meet him," Brown told reporters in India's capital. Islamabad has blamed "non-state actors" for the attacks and has vowed to cooperate with investigations, but has also repeatedly said anyone caught in Pakistan would be tried in Pakistan. Singh later said India wanted good relations with Pakistan but again urged Islamabad to do more to stamp out militant groups operating on its soil. "We want to normalise our relations with Pakistan," Singh told people at an election in the Kashmiri town of Khandroo. "There are some people in Pakistan who are always trying to launch such bloody attacks."
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