Rice urges Pakistan to cooperate in Mumbai inquiry

By Sue Pleming

LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday urged Pakistan to give its "absolute, total" cooperation in finding those responsible for last week's attacks on Mumbai.

Rice, who is due in India on Wednesday to try to lower tensions with its rival Pakistan, said the United States made clear to Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari there must be complete transparency in the investigation into the Mumbai attacks that killed nearly 200 people, including six Americans.

"What we are emphasizing to the Pakistani government is the need to follow the evidence wherever it leads and to do that in the most committed and firmest possible way," she told reporters traveling with her to London, where she discussed India-Pakistan tensions with Britain's foreign minister.

Indian officials have said the Islamist militants who went on the rampage in Mumbai for three days were from an anti-India group based in Pakistan, a Muslim nation carved out of Hindu-majority India in 1947.

"I don't want to jump to any conclusions myself on this but I do think that this is a time for complete, absolute, total transparency and cooperation and that is what we expect (from Pakistan)," Rice added.

Zardari, whose wife Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by Islamists last year, has vowed to crack down if given proof but has urged India not to punish his country for the attacks on India's financial capital, saying militants have the power to precipitate a war in the region.

Rice said there needed to be the "highest levels" of cooperation by law enforcement and intelligence agencies from both countries, a view later underlined by Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband at a news conference with Rice.

"It is joint action, and cooperative action, that will make the difference between stability and instability," he said.

Rice urged the world to be decisive in following up any leads to make sure those responsible were brought to justice.

"Ultimately, the terrorists have to be stopped ... Challenging them and resolutely going after them is the only choice that we have," she said.

Rice will drop at least two stops -- Rome and Helsinki -- from a European tour this week and visit New Delhi instead, aiming to ease growing antagonism between two nuclear-armed nations who have fought three wars since 1947.

Asked whether she was concerned these latest tensions could lead to a full-blown conflict, Rice played down the risk.

DIFFICULT TASK AHEAD

But she conceded a difficult task lay ahead for the new civilian government in Pakistan, which has threatened to move troops from its western border with Afghanistan to the Indian frontier if tensions escalate.

Some experts say the singling out by the attackers of foreigners in Mumbai, especially Britons and Americans, could be a dangerous emerging trend in international terrorism and Rice said Washington was watching this closely.