World | India
Rice arrives in New Delhi to ease Indo-Pak tension
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in New Delhi on Wednesday to hold talks over tensions that have flared between India and Pakistan over the Mumbai attacks.
- Agencies
- Published: 09:37 December 3, 2008
- Image Credit: Gulf News Archive
- Rice cut short a European tour to come to India
New Delhi: United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called for rapid and resolute action over the Mumbai attacks on a trip to New Delhi on Wednesday to ease tension between India and Pakistan.
"We have to act with urgency, we have to act with resolve and I have said that Pakistan needs to act with resolve," Rice told a press conference.
Rice arrived in New Delhi earlier on Wednesday to hold talks over tensions that have flared between the rival South-Asian nations.
She cut short a European tour to come to India, where she will meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Investigators said the 10 gunmen who killed almost two hundred people in a three-day rampage last week were from a Pakistan-based militant group.
India has long said Pakistan is unable or unwilling to act against groups on its soil which launch such strikes and the attacks have threatened to unravel improving ties between the adversaries.
Islamabad has denied involvement and condemned the Mumbai attacks.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari vehemently denied any involvement.
"The state of Pakistan is no way responsible," Zardari told CNN's "Larry King Live" program, adding that India had not provided them with tangible proof that the surviving gunman Azam Amir Kasav is Pakistani.
On Monday, New Delhi renewed a long-standing demand for about 20 fugitives it believes are hiding in Pakistan.
Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said military action was not being considered but later warned a peace process begun in 2004 was at risk if Pakistan did not act decisively.
"While we have no intention of not carrying on with the peace process, when people's sentiments are affected it creates an atmosphere not to carry on business as usual, it has some impact," he said.
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