India to get access to Headley within 3 months : US envoy

NEW DELHI: US Ambassador Timothy J Roemer today assured India that it would get access to Mumbai terror attack accused David Coleman Headley within the next three months.

"Sooner than the next three months," was Roemer's reply to a question on when Indian investigators would get access to Headley for questioning in the 26/11 terror attack case.

Headley, currently lodged in a prison in Chicago, has confessed to plotting the Mumbai attacks.

The US envoy, however, refused to talk about extraditing Headley to India, saying "it is hypothetical...we have not talked anything specific."

Roemer told NDTV that the US and India were working for the last few months to have a bilateral intelligence sharing mechanism and it would be in place "soon".

"I have burnt the midnight oil in Delhi on this (intelligence mechanism) and have pushed its case," he said.

Describing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as "honest, sincere and smart," the US Ambassador said he brought all these qualities together to best use.

He also agreed that personal relationship that leaders like Singh brought to bilateral talks would go a long way in cementing lasting ties between the two nations.

Asked about his recent visit to Islamabad and what he told Pakistan about India's presence in Afghanistan, Roemer said he spoke about the "positive" contribution that New Delhi had made in the infrastructure and development sector.

He said he had given the example of India providing the infrastructure to take 24-hour electricity connection to Kabul, which was a "game changer, life changer" for the people of the embattled country.

Roemer said he had gone to Pakistan "not as an interlocutor" but to give his views on how he perceived the region.

He said Pakistan needs to do more in stopping terror groups like al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba operating from its soil.