Rice in India urges Pakistan to act fast on Mumbai attacks

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NEW DELHI, Dec 3 (Reuters): US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Wednesday urged Pakistan to move fast to help catch those responsible for the Mumbai attacks that have threatened Pakistan's relations with India.
"This is the time for everybody to cooperate and do so transparently, and this is especially a time for Pakistan to do so," Washington's top diplomat told a news conference.
Rice flew into New Delhi Wednesday to help ease tensions that have surged with Islamabad over the attacks in Mumbai that killed 171 people last week.
India has demanded Pakistan move swiftly to capture militants responsible for the attacks, whom Indian police said had trained for more than a year on Pakistani soil.
"We have to act with urgency, we have to act with resolve," Rice said.
"I have said that Pakistan needs to act with resolve and urgency and cooperate fully and transparently. That message has been delivered and will be delivered to Pakistan," Rice said.
Earlier report adds: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in New Delhi Wednesday as part of urgent US efforts to ease tension between India and Pakistan that has surged over the Mumbai attacks.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari said he doubted Indian claims that the only surviving Islamist gunman out of the 10 who attacked Mumbai was a Pakistani.
"We have not been given any tangible proof to say that he is definitely a Pakistani. I very much doubt ... that he's a Pakistani," Zardari told CNN's "Larry King Live", adding that if given evidence his government would take action.
Zardari also signalled he would not accept an Indian demand to hand over 20 of its most wanted men that New Delhi says are living in Pakistan, saying if there was any evidence they would be tried by his country's judiciary.
At least 171 people were killed in the three-day rampage in India's financial capital that ended Saturday. Mumbai police Wednesday said there had been some duplication in counting bodies that put the toll initially at 183.
Rice, who cut short a trip to Europe to come to New Delhi, made no comments to reporters when she arrived.
In other efforts to ease tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals, the top US military commander was visiting the region.
India has long said Pakistan is unable or unwilling to act against anti-India militant groups there. The latest attacks risk unravelling improved ties between the adversaries, who have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947.
Organised through text messages, mass emails and Facebook, a large protest is planned in Mumbai Wednesday night by residents more angry at what they see as a huge government security failure than Pakistani involvement.
Advertising executive Sunil Agarwal, 42, said India's intelligence apparatus should be disbanded.
"What use do we have for them? Look at the US after 9/11. There have been no more attacks. That's because their security apparatus is so effective. Their politicians value human life. Ours don't," he told Reuters.
With an election due by May, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is under pressure to craft a muscular response to opposition criticism, which has intensified since the attacks, that his ruling Congress party coalition is weak on security.
Mumbai's police chief Hasan Gafoor said the attackers had trained for a year or more in commando tactics. Azam Amir Kasav, the only surviving gunman, told investigators he is a Pakistani citizen from Punjab, Gafoor said. [nDEL403512]
Other investigators have said the gunmen were all Pakistanis, from the Lashkar-e-Taiba group.
Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said military action was not being considered but later warned that a peace process begun in 2004 was at risk if Pakistan did not act decisively.
"Of course the atmosphere has been vitiated. Can't you see the outrage of the Indian people? Am I to explain it? Every Indian feels hurt, feels injured. Is it a conducive atmosphere?" Mukherjee told CNN/IBN television.
The deterioration could also put US counter-terrorism efforts in the region at risk -- Islamabad has said the tensions may force it to shift troops from operations against al Qaeda militants on the Afghanistan border to the frontier with India.