Mumbai gunmen must not derail peace: Pakistani PM

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The militants who attacked Mumbai must not be allowed to derail the peace process between India and Pakistan, the Pakistani prime minister said on Friday.

India has blamed Islamist militants based in Pakistan for the three-day rampage in its financial capital last week that killed 171 people.

Tension between the nuclear-armed neighbors, who have fought three wars since independence from British rule in 1947, has stoked fears of renewed confrontation and the collapse of their four-year-old peace process.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani reiterated a Pakistani offer to work with India to expose the "hidden hands" behind the "ghastly acts of terrorism."

"While the terrorists may try to derail the peace process between Pakistan and India, we should not allow them to succeed in their nefarious designs," Gilani said in a speech to European ambassadors.

Pakistani government and security officials have denied any involvement by state agencies, and leaders have repeatedly offered to help India with its investigation.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was this week in New Delhi and Islamabad, where she stressed the need for full cooperation from Pakistan to get to the bottom of the attacks. She also urged India to show restraint.

TRADE TALKS POSTPONED

A Pakistani Commerce Ministry official said trade talks with India scheduled for this week had been postponed, and India had not responded to a Pakistani proposal of new dates.

The two countries embarked on a peace process after they nearly went to war in 2002 following a militant attack on India's parliament.

The so-called composite dialogue has brought better diplomatic, trade and sporting ties although little progress has been made on their main dispute, over the divided Jammu and Kashmir region.

Earlier on Friday, the chief of Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, Lieutenant-General Ahmed Shujaa Pasha, met Gilani to brief him on security, the prime minister's office said.

Indian newspapers said on Friday the ISI had been involved in training the attackers of Mumbai, who are said to belong to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group that has been blamed for earlier attacks in India.

India says 10 militants were involved in the coordinated attacks in Mumbai and nine of them were killed.

The lone surviving attacker told Indian investigators after he was captured they had undergone months of commando training organized by Lashkar and conducted by former Pakistan army officers.

Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Kayani told his commanders on Thursday the army stood for peace and security.

Without mentioning India, he said he hoped "peace and stability in the region will be maintained."

A confrontation between the South Asian rivals would undercut U.S.-led efforts to bring stability to Afghanistan.

Pakistani security officials have said they could feel compelled to abandon the campaign against Islamist militancy and take forces away from the Afghan border, where they are fighting al Qaeda and the Taliban, and move them to the Indian border if tension increased.

(Additional reporting by Augustine Anthony; editing by Robert Birsel and Andrew Roche)