US hopeful of India, Pak finds avenues

WASHINGTON: The United States has expressed hope that India and Pakistan will maintain the progress it achieved in its relationship despite strain in their relationship after the Mumbai serial blasts and said the neighbours will find ways to ensure peace in the region.

Terming the Mumbai blasts as a "horrible tragedy" with those responsible being "obviously well prepared" with the "evil intent", the Bush administration also said under the present circumstances the focus must be on the "evidence" of who or what groups may have been behind the Tuesday blasts.

New Delhi has postponed the foreign secretary level talks scheduled for July 20 to review the third round of composite dialogue in the wake of Mumbai blasts with New Delhi saying the blasts were carried out with help from across the border.

"We certainly hope that the progress in India-Pakistan relations is not lost, and that they find opportunities to cooperate, to cooperate against terrorist groups, to cooperate in stabilizing the region. And that's something we'll continue to encourage. It's up to them to decide how to proceed," Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher told reporters.

"We realize that they felt it was not possible to have the foreign secretaries meetings this week. But I think our outlook remains that India-Pak cooperation is important for the region and we hope they will find ways to continue it in the future," he said.

Boucher said US' message was to find the evidence who was responsible for the attack and then "look together at what we can do to stop any groups or organizations or support that organizations might be getting to make sure that people can't carry out such actions in the future."

SK Boucher's comments came hours after prime minister Manmohan Singh and US President George W Bush held talks on the sidelines of the G-8 summit and discussed a wide range of issues including the blasts and Indo-US civilian nuclear deal.

He said the US was keeping in touch with New Delhi on the blasts and Undersecretary Nicholas Burns had a meeting last Thursday in Paris with Foreign Secretary Saran in this regard.

"There were obviously well-prepared (plans) by somebody with evil intent, by somebody with local knowledge, by somebody with -- or some group, some individuals, some people with a lot of planning and malice, so forth, you know, and a lot of knowledge," he said.

He said nobody has clinching evidence to pinpoint the perpetrators of the wave of deadly attacks, which rocked the financial hub of India killing 200 and injuring over 700.

"The evidence...as far as who they were, who was responsible -- I don't think we've seen a lot yet. That's to be expected. The Indians are conducting the investigation, and investigators usually don't talk about their investigations until they've reached a firm conclusion.

"I know there's a lot of speculation out there now. That happens in these cases. But I think we need to be led by the evidence before we start trying to draw conclusions and make policy pronouncements on it. So that will be our attitude, and I think that should be the attitude of others as well."

Asked about India's response to US sale of F-16s to Pakistan, Boucher maintained that he had not heard anything from New Delhi.

"... our sale is based on what we think are legitimate needs of Pakistan, defensive purposes. And we proceed on that basis, not on the basis of what other people think or don't