The newly-appointed US envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan said yesterday that Islamist militancy presented the same security risks to both the United States and South Asia.
"India, the United States and Pakistan all have a common threat now," Richard Holbrooke told reporters in New Delhi.
"For the first time in 60 years since independence, your country (India) and Pakistan and the United States all face an enemy that poses a direct threat to our leadership, our capitals and our people."
His comments came after the Pakistan government signed an agreement with Islamic hardliners to enforce sharia law in part of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province.
Holbrooke, appointed to implement a new US strategy in South Asia under President Barack Obama, was in New Delhi at the end of a regional tour that included visits to Islamabad and Kabul.
Holbrooke met Indian leaders on Monday for talks that focused on the global threat from Pakistan-based militants in the wake of the Mumbai attacks.
Holbrooke, the new US envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, arrived in New Delhi late on Sunday as part of a regional tour after visits to Islamabad and Kabul.
He was appointed to implement a new US strategy in South Asia under President Barack Obama, who plans to boost troop numbers in Afghanistan and to force Islamabad to eradicate al-Qaeda safe havens inside Pakistan.
Holbrooke, a former ambassador to the United Nations, held discussions with Indian foreign policy advisers and was later scheduled for talks with Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
"We will share our perceptions, and terrorism emanating from Pakistan will be part of that," an Indian official told AFP ahead of the meetings. "We think the Pakistan establishment is key when talking about terrorism."
India has labelled Pakistan the "epicentre of terrorism" in the region and has accused it of sheltering Islamic groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is widely blamed for November's attacks on Mumbai.
New Delhi has noted with strong approval that Holbrooke's tour coincided with Islamabad's admission that part of the Mumbai attacks, in which 165 people were killed, was indeed planned in Pakistan.
"Until the Mumbai attacks, the perception in Washington was that the US is fighting the global war against terror and that India was fighting a local war against terror," said Lalit Mansingh, former Indian ambassador to Washington.
"But that has changed. Now there is a better understanding that there is little difference between so-called global and local terror groups."
New Delhi is also likely to warn the US over military aid to the region.
Pakistan is seeking billions of dollars to combat the Islamist threat from its northwestern tribal belt that became a stronghold for extremists who fled Afghanistan after the Taliban fell in 2001.
Pakistani commanders say they need helicopters, drones and an array of new military equipment to tackle the Taliban fighters, but India is sceptical about their intentions.
"We have heard that Pakistan's wishlist for fighting terror includes precision-guided missiles. We have our doubts about whether Pakistan intends to use them to hunt down insurgents," said one diplomatic source.
Since partition in 1947, mutual suspicion has characterised ties between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan, who have fought two of their three wars over the Himalayan region of Kashmir.
According to reports, Islamabad told Holbrooke it would be better able to focus on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border if the issue of divided Kashmir was resolved.
But India is adamant that Kashmir remains "a bilateral issue" with Pakistan.
"We will make it clear that Kashmir is a symptom and not the cause of terrorism in the region," the source said.
Pakistan has been a vital US ally since former president George W. Bush invaded neighbouring Afghanistan to oust the Taliban regime for sheltering al-Qaeda after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
But relations have soured, not least after dozens of suspected US missile strikes against militants inside Pakistan.
Holbrooke will report back to Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after his Indian visit, which completes his first tour of the region in his new capacity..
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