NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India acknowledged the Mumbai attacks had uncovered security lapses but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Friday evidence showed the strike originated on a neighbor's soil, a clear reference to Pakistan.

The ruling Congress party-led coalition is under renewed criticism from the opposition that it is weak on security after the three-day rampage by 10 Islamist gunmen in India's financial capital last week capped a series of bomb blasts this year.

"I would be less than truthful if I said there were no lapses," new Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram told reporters in Mumbai. "These are being looked into. We will address the causes that led to the lapses."

Chidambaram took the post on Sunday after his predecessor quit amid public fury at government failure to prevent the attacks. Elections are due by May and analysts say Singh must demonstrate decisive action to counter criticism over security.

"We have impressed upon all world leaders who called me that the people of India feel a sense of hurt and anger as never before," Singh said at a media conference with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who was on a scheduled trip to New Delhi.

"We expect the world community to come to the same conclusion, that the territory of a neighboring country has been used for this crime," he said.

Pakistan has condemned the assault, denied state involvement and vowed to help the Indian probe. But it wants proof first.

Mumbai police have said the gunmen were controlled by the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group blamed for earlier attacks in India.

LeT is on U.S. and Indian terrorist lists and Indian police say two of its operations leaders, who were designated terrorists by Washington in May, coordinated the Mumbai rampage.

INDIAN ACCOMPLICE?

There was evidence of some Indian complicity in the attacks, police in the North Indian state of Uttar Pradesh said on Friday.

In February, police arrested an LeT-linked Indian named Faim Ansari after an attack on a police station. He was carrying maps of Mumbai, Special Task Force chief Brij Lal said.

"Ansari, who was later handed over to the Maharashtra police, carried some road maps highlighting several important landmarks of south Mumbai that became the target of last week's terrorist attack," he said.

Mumbai is the capital of Maharashtra state, but Mumbai Joint Commissioner of Police Rakesh Maria told a media conference on Friday Ansari was in jail in Uttar Pradesh.

Underscoring the collective jitters after the attacks, gunshot-like sounds heard at New Delhi's international airport early on Friday sparked a scare. Police said no one was hurt and normal operations resumed after a search.

The violence in Mumbai killed at least 171 people. India has said nine militants were killed and one captured alive. U.S. analysts said as many as 23 gunmen could have been involved.

"If there were others that had a role in the whole operation, I would not be able to say now," Chidambaram said.

Indian newspapers reported the Pakistan military's spy agency ISI helped train the gunmen.

"There is ample evidence to show the source of the attacks were clearly linked to organizations which have in the past been identified as behind terrorist attacks in India," Chidambaram said when asked if ISI was involved. He did not name ISI.

India has blamed ISI for using militant groups like LeT in earlier attacks and as proxies in the latter years of their 60-year conflict over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.

The Mumbai rampage has threatened a four-year-old peace process between the nuclear-armed rivals, put in place after a 2001 attack on parliament blamed on LeT nearly set off a war.

"Neither the Pakistani nation nor our Indian brothers want war. God willing, that won't happen," acting Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters.

Analysts say an escalation in tension would force Pakistan to move troops to its border with India, and threaten a U.S-led operation against al Qaeda and other militants on its western frontier with Afghanistan.

ISI chief Lieutenant-General Ahmed Shujaa Pasha briefed Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on security on Friday, Gilani's office said.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in both New Delhi and Islamabad this week, urging cooperation against terrorism between the old enemies, who have fought three wars since independence in 1947.

(Additional reporting by New Delhi, Mumbai and Islamabad bureaux and Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow; Editing by Paul Tait)

MUMBAI, India – Airports in India went on high alert Thursday following fresh attack warnings as officials said India suspects two senior leaders of a banned Pakistani militant group orchestrated the deadly Mumbai attacks.

The alert comes as Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari promised the visiting U.S. secretary of state his country would take "strong action" against any elements in his country involved in the siege.

The new alert that warned of possible airborne attacks focused on three major airports — New Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai — but security was stepped up across the country. No details about the threat were released.

"This is a warning which we have received. We are prepared as usual," India's air force chief, Fali Homi Major, told reporters Thursday.

Heavily armed guards from India's Rapid Deployment Force manned roadblocks outside airports, while others patrolled inside airport buildings among passengers.

Several extra layers of security were set up and some passengers had bags scanned with devices to check for explosives before entering terminals.

"Passengers have been asked to pass through six-stage security checks," said Brij Lal, a senior police official organizing security at the airport in the northern city of Lucknow.

Nirmala Sharma, a passenger who flew from New Delhi to Lucknow, said her bags were checked half a dozen times and she went through a metal detector three times. "Sometimes it seemed tedious, but it seems to be the need of the hour," she said.

Meanwhile, officials continued to probe the attacks.

Evidence collected in probes so far has pointed to two members of outlawed Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Taiba as masterminds in the attacks, according to two Indian government officials familiar with the matter.

The men, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Yusuf Muzammil, are believed to be in Pakistan, the officials said. Lakhvi was identified as the group's operations chief and Muzammil as its operations chief in Kashmir and other parts of India.

The lone surviving gunman in the assault, Ajmal Amir Kasab, 21, told police Lakhvi recruited him for the operation, and the assailants called Muzammil on a satellite phone after hijacking an Indian vessel en route to Mumbai. During the attacks, the gunmen used mobile phones taken from hotel guests to place calls to the Pakistani city of Lahore.

The Indian officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk publicly discuss the details.

Kasab told police that he and the other nine attackers had trained for months in camps in Pakistan operated Lashkar.

The revelations added to the growing evidence linking the attacks to Pakistani-based militants, and came as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with leaders in Islamabad Thursday after visiting India's capital — part of a U.S. effort to pressure Pakistan to share more intelligence and pursue terrorist cells believe rooted in the country.

"I have found a Pakistani government that is focused on the threat and understands its responsibilities to respond to terrorism and extremism," she said after meeting Zardari.

In the meeting, Zardari "reiterated that the government will not only assist in (the) investigation but also take strong action against any Pakistani elements found involved in the attack," his office said in a statement.

He said Pakistan was "determined to ensure that its territory is not used for any act of terrorism," the statement said.

U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen, who was pushing the same message as Rice in Pakistan on Wednesday, was to meet with officials in India during his trip.

Last week's attacks were carried out by 10 suspected Muslim militants against upscale hotels, a restaurant and other sites across Mumbai.

Government security forces have come under intense criticism they missed warnings and bungled their response to the Nov. 26-29 attacks.

On Thursday, police said an unexploded hand grenade was found outside a hospital that was the scene of an attack during last week's siege on the city. The grenade may have been left by the gunmen, but an investigation has not yet been completed, said Senior Police Inspector Shashi Pal.

The discovery came after police detected two bombs at Mumbai's main train station Wednesday, nearly a week after they were left there by the attackers.

It was not clear why the bags at the station were not examined earlier. The station, which serves hundreds of thousands of commuters, was declared safe and reopened hours after the attack.

Fallout from the attacks widened Thursday as the chief minister of Maharashtra state, where Mumbai is located, stepped down. The country's top law enforcement official resigned last week.

"I regret that we could not have saved more lives, that regret will remain with me," the minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, told reporters.

With public anger over the attacks rising by the day, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday adopted a more strident tone against India's longtime rival, saying there's no doubt the assailants were Pakistani and their handlers in Pakistan.

Many Indians wanted more than just harsh words.

"Pakistan has been attacking my country for a long time," protester Rajat Sehgal said at a candlelight gathering in Mumbai, one of a series of rallies across India. "If it means me going to war, I don't mind."

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Associated Press writers Erika Kinetz in Mumbai, Ashok Sharma in New Delhi, Biswajeet Banerjee in Lucknow and Anne Gearan in Islamabad contributed to this report.

President Asif Ali Zardari made the pledge during a meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. Rice said she is satisfied with Pakistan's commitment to fight terrorism and its readiness to pursue any lead in the attacks that left 171 people dead in India's financial capital.

Evidence collected in probes so far has pointed to two members of outlawed Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Taiba as masterminds in the attacks, according to two Indian government officials familiar with the matter.

The men, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Yusuf Muzammil, are believed to be in Pakistan, the officials said. Lakhvi was identified as the group's operations chief and Muzammil as its operations chief in Kashmir and other parts of India.

The lone surviving gunman in the assault told police Lakhvi recruited him for the operation, and the assailants called Muzammil on a satellite phone after hijacking an Indian vessel en route to Mumbai. During the attacks, the gunmen used mobile phones taken from hotel guests to place calls to the Pakistani city of Lahore.

The Indian officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk publicly discuss the details.

The revelations added to the growing evidence linking the attacks to Pakistani-based militants, and came as Rice met with leaders in Islamabad Thursday after visiting India's capital — part of a U.S. effort to pressure Pakistan to share more intelligence and pursue terrorist cells believe rooted in the country.

"I have found a Pakistani government that is focused on the threat and understands its responsibilities to respond to terrorism and extremism," she said after meeting Zardari.

In the meeting, Zardari "reiterated that the government will not only assist in (the) investigation but also take strong action against any Pakistani elements found involved in the attack," his office said in a statement.

He said Pakistan was "determined to ensure that its territory is not used for any act of terrorism," the statement said.

U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen, who was pushing the same message as Rice in Pakistan on Wednesday, was to meet with officials in India during his trip.

Last week's attacks were carried out by 10 suspected Muslim militants against upscale hotels, a restaurant and other sites across Mumbai.

Indian airports, meanwhile, were put on high alert after the government received warnings of possible airborne attacks. No details about the threat were released.

"This is a warning which we have received. We are prepared as usual," India's air force chief, Fali Homi Major, told reporters Thursday.

Government security forces have come under intense criticism they missed warnings and bungled their response to the Nov. 26-29 attacks.

On Thursday, police said an unexploded hand grenade was found outside a hospital that was the scene of an attack during last week's siege on the city. The grenade may have been left by the gunmen, but an investigation has not yet been completed, said Senior Police Inspector Shashi Pal.

The discovery came after police detected two bombs at Mumbai's main train station Wednesday, nearly a week after they were left there by the attackers.

It was not clear why the bags at the station were not examined earlier. The station, which serves hundreds of thousands of commuters, was declared safe and reopened hours after the attack.

Fallout from the attacks widened Thursday as the chief minister of Maharashtra state, where Mumbai is located, stepped down. The country's top law enforcement official resigned last week.

"I regret that we could not have saved more lives, that regret will remain with me," the minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, told reporters.

With public anger over the attacks rising by the day, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday adopted a more strident tone against India's longtime rival, saying there's no doubt the assailants were Pakistani and their handlers in Pakistan.

Many Indians wanted more than just harsh words.

"Pakistan has been attacking my country for a long time," protester Rajat Sehgal said at a candlelight gathering in Mumbai, one of a series of rallies across India. "If it means me going to war, I don't mind."

Much of the evidence tying Pakistanis to the attacks comes from the interrogation of the surviving gunman, who told police that he and the other nine attackers had trained for months in camps in Pakistan operated by the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Ajmal Amir Kasab, 21, told investigators his recruiters promised to pay his family from an impoverished village Pakistan's Punjab region $1,250 when he became a martyr.

Kasab's father is a street vendor and his mother a housewife. His brothers are farmhands and laborers and before joining the militant groups, Kasah worked as a laborer with his brother in Lahore, according to officials close to the investigation.

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Associated Press writers Erika Kinetz and Ravi Nessman in Mumbai, Ashok Sharma in New Delhi, and Anne Gearan in Islamabad contributed to this report.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday she is satisfied with Pakistan's commitment to fight terrorism and its readiness to pursue any lead in the attacks in India that have sharply raised tensions between the two nuclear powers.

Pakistan's young civilian government, she said after talks with Pakistani leaders, is very committed to the war on terror and does not want to be associated with terrorist elements.

The United States is increasing pressure on Pakistan's shaky government, sending two top officials to Islamabad in as many days to insist that Pakistan hide nothing about the origins of a terrorist attack in Mumbai that India has blamed squarely on Pakistani militants. The nearly three-day assault that killed 171 was carried out by 10 suspected Muslim militants against upscale hotels, a restaurant and other sites across Mumbai.

She said that in her meetings "I have found a Pakistani government that is focused on the threat and understands its responsibilities to respond to terrorism and extremism" wherever it is found.

Rice said it is critical that various countries, including India, the United States, Britain and Pakistan, work cooperatively and the countries must avoid taking any actions that will make the situation worse. She noted that India-Pakistan relations had improved considerably when the attacks happened.

"It was a sophisticated attack at a level of sophistication that we haven't seen here on the subcontinent before," she said. "That means there is urgency to getting to the bottom of it. There is urgency to bringing the pepetrators to justice and there is urgency to using the information to disrupt and prevent further attacks."

Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari told Rice he will take "strong action" against elements in his country that were involved in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. A presidential statement said Zardari also repeated a promise to help investigate the attacks and said Pakistan was determined to ensure its territory is not used for any act of terrorism.

Zardari's office said in a statement that he "reiterated that the government will not only assist in (the) investigation but also take strong action against any Pakistani elements found involved in the attack." He said Pakistan was "determined to ensure that its territory is not used for any act of terrorism," the statement said.

Rice talked about the importance of Pakistan dealing with those "who may use Pakistani territory even if they are not state actors. And I found a Pakistani leadership that is very focused and I think very committed for its own reasons."

She said Pakistan would investigate the situation with Mumbai "because the Pakistani government, I was told and I fully believe, is very commmitted to this war on terror, does not in any way want to be associated with terrorist elements and is indeed fighting to root them out wherever they find them." She said her talks in Pakistan have been "quite satisfactory."

After expressing U.S. condolences for the more than 170 deaths in India, Rice flew to Pakistan for the meetings with civilian and military leaders. The U.S. wants broader sharing of intelligence and a commitment by Pakistan to root out terror groups that have found a comfortable perch in the Muslim country.

Zardari, who has vowed full cooperation with India, told Rice in Islamabad that the attacks were a chance to strengthen efforts against terrorism. "We are looking at this as an opportunity and I intend to do everything in my power," Zardari said.

"I think it's clear that Pakistan is fighting this fight against terrorists ... We are all of one group, all of us," Rice said.

Zardari, who has pointed to the slaying a year ago of his wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, to underline his antiterror credentials, briefly allowed his daughter to greet Rice in the presidential palace. Rice told the girl her mother was an inspiration.

With Pakistan complaining that India has shared no evidence linking it to the attacks, Rice spent Wednesday urging cooperation between the rivals.

But the tension between the countries appeared only to rise.

Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday said there was "no doubt" the assailants were Pakistani and that their handlers were in Pakistan.

"The government of India is determined to act decisively to protect Indian territorial integrity and the right of our citizens to a peaceful life, with all the means at our disposal," he said, a turnaround from earlier statements that ruled out military action.

Rice said Pakistan bore a "special responsibility" to help get to the bottom of the attacks, but declined to finger Pakistani militants outright.

Her visit to the region to urge a common response to the crisis was complemented by that of the top American military officer.

During a stopover in Pakistan on Wednesday, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, urged Zardari and his army and spy chiefs to "investigate aggressively any and all possible ties to groups based in Pakistan," the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad said. Mullen was in India on Thursday.

Zardari has made a series of peace overtures to India.

However, he indicated on Wednesday he would not hand over 20 suspects wanted by India and said they would be tried in Pakistan if there was evidence of wrongdoing. His new civilian administration would likely face a backlash from Muslim groups and nationalists if it simply handed over the suspects to Pakistan's old foe India.

Thousands of Indians — many calling for war with Pakistan — gathered in Mumbai on Wednesday for a vigil to mark one week since the beginning of the deadly rampage. In Pakistan, more than 2,000 students marched through Islamabad shouting anti-U.S. and anti-Indian slogans.

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Associated Press writers Stephen Graham and Chris Brummitt contributed to this report.

KFAR CHABAD, Israel – Throngs of Orthodox mourners packed the funerals Tuesday of six Jews killed in the Mumbai attacks, turning the narrow alleys of one Jerusalem neighborhood into a sea of black coats and hats.

The six died after gunmen struck the Chabad House, the Mumbai headquarters of the Orthodox Lubavitch movement, last Wednesday. Four Israelis, an American Jew and a Mexican woman were among 172 killed in the three-day attack across India's financial capital.

A huge crowd gathered Tuesday outside the red-brick Israeli headquarters of the Chabad movement, whose emissary to Mumbai, Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg, 29, was murdered along with his 28-year-old wife, Rivkah. Their bodies — hers wrapped in a shroud, his in a prayer shawl — were laid out on a dais outside. They were later taken to Jerusalem for burial, accompanied by thousands of mourners.

"We will answer the terrorists," Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, a Chabad official from New York, vowed in the eulogy, his voice shaking. "We will not fight them with AK-47s. We will not fight them with grenades. We will not fight them with tanks.

"We will fight them with torches!" he cried, referring to God's teachings.

He pledged to rebuild the Mumbai center — one of thousands of Chabad outreach facilities around the world — and name it after the Holtzbergs.

The couple left behind a 2-year-old son, Moshe, who was rescued by his Indian caretaker. He returned to Israel on Monday with the nanny and the bodies of his parents, but did not attend Tuesday's services. Before their flight Monday, the boy repeatedly cried for his mother at a tearful memorial ceremony at a Mumbai synagogue.

"You don't have a mother who will hug you and kiss you," Rabbi Kotlarsky cried out during a eulogy that switched between Hebrew and English. But the community will take care of the boy, he vowed: "You are the child of all of Israel."

The only other surviving member of the family, Moshe's brother, has Tay-Sachs, a terminal genetic disease, and is institutionalized in Israel. The Holtzbergs' eldest son died of the disease.

The Holtzbergs had lived in Israel and Brooklyn before they moved to Mumbai in 2003. Rabbi Holtzberg also had U.S. citizenship.

Most of the people who came were bearded men in the black suits and black fedoras of Chabad members. Women gathered behind a yellow metal partition, in accordance with the Jewish custom of separating the sexes during prayer.

President Shimon Peres and a slew of other dignitaries attended the Holtzberg's services.

The grimness of the funerals was deepened by the conviction that the victims were struck because of their religion.

"It's a very difficult feeling because we know this was targeted against us," said Eliahu Tzadok, 41, who attended the funeral of another victim, 38-year-old Leibish Teitelbaum, an American who had lived in Jerusalem before her death in India. "It's a continuation of acts against the Jewish people when the Jewish people did nothing to deserve it."

Teitelbaum belonged to a prominent family in the small, ultra-Orthodox Satmar sect, which is ideologically opposed to the state of Israel.

His family informed the Israeli government that they wanted no state involvement or symbols at his funeral, an official in the government ministry in charge of state ceremonies said Monday. But when Teitelbaum's casket was taken off the plane from Mumbai, it was draped with an Israeli flag.

Shmuel Poppenheim, who studied with Teitelbaum in his youth, told Israel Radio that "disturbed his family very much." There were no Israeli flags or government representatives at the funeral.

A fourth victim, 50-year-old Norma Shvarzblat Rabinovich of Mexico, had planned to immigrate to Israel to join two of her children.

The two other victims were Yocheved Orpaz, 60, who had been traveling in India with a daughter and grandchildren, and Bentzion Chroman, 28, who like Teitelbaum, was a supervisor of kosher food.

Another U.S. official added that there is reason to suspect the assailants were part of a group at least partly based across the border in Pakistan.

As the evidence of the militants' links to Pakistan mounts, a list of about 20 people — including India's most-wanted man — was submitted to Pakistan's high commissioner to New Delhi on Monday night, said India's foreign minister, Pranab Mukherjee.

The revelations come as the Indian government faces widespread accusations of security and intelligence failures after suspected Muslim militants carried out a three-day attack across India's financial capital, killing at least 172 people — including six Americans — and wounding 239.

India has already demanded Pakistan take "strong action" against those responsible for the attacks, and the U.S. has pressured Islamabad to cooperate in the investigation. America's chief diplomat, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, will visit India on Wednesday.

A Bush administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of intelligence information, said Tuesday that the U.S. passed on information to India about a potential attack on Mumbai from its long waterfront. But the official would not elaborate on the timing or details of the U.S. warning to Indian counterparts.

Another American official said the assailants could have been at least partly based in Pakistan — the closest the U.S. has come to laying blame for the attacks. The State Department official, who requested anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, was careful to say not all the evidence is in.

Meanwhile in Jerusalem, Israelis began burying the six Jews killed in one of those attacks, the assault on a Jewish center run by the ultra-Orthodox Chabad Lubavitch movement.

Several thousand ultra-Orthodox mourners gathered for the first funeral, that of Leibish Teitelbaum, an American who lived in Jerusalem.

Four Israelis and a Mexican Jewish woman were also killed. A memorial ceremony was scheduled for later Wednesday for the 29-year-old rabbi who ran the Jewish center, Gavriel Holtzberg, and his 28-year-old wife, Rivkah.

Indian officials continued to interrogate the only surviving attacker, who reportedly told police that he and the other nine gunmen had trained for months in camps in Pakistan operated by the banned Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

India's foreign intelligence agency received information as recently as September that Pakistan-based terrorists were plotting attacks against Mumbai targets, according to a government intelligence official familiar with the matter. He said the information, which he attributed to Indian sources and not the Americans, included indications that hotels would be targeted but did not specify which ones.

The information was then relayed to domestic security authorities, said the official, who was not authorized to talk publicly about the details and spoke on condition of anonymity. But it's unclear whether the government acted on the intelligence.

The famous Taj Mahal hotel, scene of much of the bloodshed, had tightened security with metal detectors and other measures in the weeks before the attacks, after being warned of a possible threat.

But the precautions "could not have stopped what took place," Ratan Tata, chairman of the company that owns the hotel, told CNN. "They (the gunmen) didn't come through that entrance. They came from somewhere in the back."

A day after soldiers finishing removed the last bodies from the hotel, where the standoff finally ended Saturday morning, wood boards covered its marble latticework and seafront entrance as plainclothes police searched for evidence.

The building was the last to be cleared, following the five-star Oberoi hotel, the Jewish center, and other sites struck in this city of 18 million.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has promised to strengthen maritime and air security and look into creating a new federal investigative agency, met Tuesday with top security aides to review any government lapses.

Among those sought by India is fugitive Dawood Ibrahim — a powerful gangster, the alleged mastermind of 1993 Mumbai bombings, and India's most-wanted man.

Also included is Masood Azhar, a terror suspect freed from an Indian prison in exchange for the release of hostages aboard an Indian Airlines aircraft hijacked on Christmas Day 1999.

In the past, Pakistan has denied harboring the men. However, Pakistan said it would consider India's request and respond after receiving the list.

"We must try to dampen down the discourse of conflict and work toward regional peace," said Pakistani Information Minister Sherry Rehman.

While the cross-border rhetoric between Pakistan and India has increased since the attacks, both countries — by their often-bellicose standards — carefully refrained from making statements that could quickly lead to a buildup of troops along their already militarized frontier.

Mukherjee appeared to tone things down further Tuesday, telling reporters that "nobody is talking about military action," according to the Press Trust of India news agency. Mukherjee, responding to questions on what actions India would take, said only "time will show."

In Pakistan, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi pledged full cooperation.

Qureshi said Pakistan has offered a "joint investigative mechanism and joint commission." He didn't say when the offer was made or if India had responded.

With the investigation still under way, and FBI and Scotland Yard teams assisting, more details emerged about the suspects and the attacks.

The sole surviving attacker, Ajmal Qasab, told police his group trained over about six months in camps operated by Lashkar in Pakistan, learning close-combat techniques, hostage-taking, handling of explosives, satellite navigation, and high-seas survival skills, according to two Indian security officials familiar with the investigation. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the details.

Lashkar was outlawed in Pakistan under pressure from the U.S. in 2002, a year after Washington and Britain listed it a terrorist group.

Qasab told investigators the militants hijacked an Indian vessel and killed three crew members, keeping the captain alive long enough to guide them into Mumbai, the two security officials said.

The men, ages 18-28, then came ashore in a dinghy at two different Mumbai areas before slipping into the city in two teams, officials said.

The gunmen hired two separate taxis after reaching Mumbai, planting bombs that later exploded in each vehicle, officials said. Two more unexploded bombs were found outside the Taj Mahal hotel.

The gunmen struck at several sites, including a train station, where they mowed down police and passers-by; the Jewish center; and the two luxury hotels, representing the city's wealth and tourism, reportedly seeking out Westerners.

The 19 foreigners killed were Americans, Germans, Canadians, Israelis and nationals from Britain, Italy, Mexico, Japan, China, Thailand, Australia, Singapore and Mexico.

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Associated Press writers Ravi Nessman in Mumbai, Ashok Sharma in New Delhi, Asif Shahzad in Islamabad, Pakistan, Anne Gearan in Brussels, Belgium, and Jennifer Loven in Washington contributed to this report.

The United States called on Pakistan to fully cooperate with investigations into the attack, which has strained relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.

Soldiers removed the last victims' bodies from the shattered Taj Mahal hotel Monday, searching each room in the labyrinthine building and defusing booby-traps and bombs left by the gunmen.

The sole known surviving attacker told police that his group trained for months in camps operated by Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan, learning close-combat techniques, hostage taking, handling of explosives, satellite navigation, and high seas survival skills.

Lashkar was banned in Pakistan in 2002 under pressure from the U.S., a year after Washington and Britain listed it a terrorist group. It is since believed to have emerged under another name, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, though that group has denied links to the Mumbai attack.

Mumbai's most influential Muslim cemetery rejected the corpses of nine of the gunmen and said "Islam does not permit this sort of barbaric crime."

Pakistan's high commissioner to India was called to the foreign ministry and told that "elements from Pakistan" had carried out the attacks, ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash told reporters.

The commissioner was told that India "expects that strong action would be taken against those elements," Prakash said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Pakistan to "follow the evidence wherever it leads."

"This is a time for complete, absolute, total transparency and cooperation and that's what we expect," Rice said in London.

She said the perpetrators of attacks "must be brought to justice."

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari called the attackers "non-state actors," and warned against letting their actions lead to greater enmity in the region.

"Such a tragic incident must bring opportunity rather than the defeat of a nation," Zardari said in an interview with Aaj television. "We don't think the world's great nations and countries can be held hostage by non-state actors."

The announcement blaming Lashkar has threatened to escalate tensions between India and Pakistan. However, Indian officials have been cautious about accusing Pakistan's government of complicity.

Prakash, India's foreign ministry spokesman, denied a news report that India was preparing to end a 2003 cease-fire with Pakistan. An intelligence official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said there was no unusual mobilization of troops along the India-Pakistan border.

In Mumbai, teams from the FBI and Britain's Scotland Yard met with top Indian police Monday as they prepared to help collect evidence from the attacks, a police official said. At the Taj Mahal, security forces declared the 565-room landmark — the scene of Saturday's final battle — cleared of booby traps and bodies.

"We were apprehensive about more bodies being found. But this is not likely — all rooms in the Taj have been opened and checked," said Maharashtra state government spokesman Bhushan Gagrani.

The army had already cleared other sites, including the five-star Oberoi hotel and the Mumbai headquarters of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish group. Israeli emergency workers sorted through the shattered glass and splintered furniture at the Jewish center Monday to gather the victims' body parts. At one point, one of the men opened a prayer book amid the rubble and stopped to pray.

The top provincial official, Vilasrao Deshmukh, offered to resign Monday, as did his deputy, R.R. Patil, who outraged many by referring to the attacks as "small incidents."

The only gunman known to have survived, Ajmal Qasab, told investigators the gunmen trained over about six months at Lashkar camps near Karachi and another area of Pakistan, according to two security officials familiar with the probe, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the details.

The men, between the ages of 18 and 28, received rigorous training in close-combat techniques, hostage taking, handling of explosives, satellite navigation, and high seas survival skills, the officials said.

A Muslim graveyard in Mumbai on Monday rejected the bodies of the nine dead attackers.

"People who committed this heinous crime cannot be called Muslim," said Hanif Nalkhande, a trustee of the influential Jama Masjid Trust, which runs the 7.5-acre (three-hectare) Badakabrastan graveyard in downtown Mumbai. "Islam does not permit this sort of barbaric crime."

While some Muslim scholars disagreed with the decision — saying Islam requires a proper burial for every Muslim — the city's other Muslim graveyards are likely to do the same.

Mumbai returned to normal Monday to some degree, with parents dropping their children off at school and many shopkeepers opened their doors for the first time since the attacks began.

"I think this is the first Monday I am glad to be coming to work," said Donica Trivedi, 23, an employee of a public relations agency.

Indian officials said their country would not be broken.

"This is a threat to the very idea of India, the very soul of India," Palaniappan Chidambaram, the just-named home minister, the country's top law enforcement official, told reporters. "Ultimately the idea of India — that is a secular, plural, tolerant and open society — will triumph."

India's previous home minister resigned Sunday, as more details of the response to the attack emerged and a picture formed of woefully unprepared security forces.

"These guys could do it next week again in Mumbai and our responses would be exactly the same," said Ajai Sahni, head of the New Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management and who has close ties to India's police and intelligence.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised to strengthen maritime and air security and look into creating a new federal investigative agency.

Singh promised to expand the commando force and set up new bases for it around the country. He called a rare meeting of leaders from the country's main political parties, hours after the resignation of Home Minister Shivraj Patil.

Among the 19 foreigners killed were six Americans. The dead also included Germans, Canadians, Israelis and nationals from Britain, Italy, Mexico, Japan, China, Thailand, Australia, Singapore and Mexico.

Indian stocks fell sharply on the first day of trading after the end of the siege. The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index, or Sensex, closed down 252.85 points, or about 2.8 percent.

While the attacks could keep tourists and foreign investors away, some analysts attributed Monday's declines to shock and anxiety in the immediate aftermath rather than a loss of confidence in India's economic prospects.

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Associated Press reporters Ravi Nessman, Paul Peachey, Anita Chang and Ramola Talwar Badam contributed to this report from Mumbai, Ashok Sharma contributed from New Delhi and Asif Shahzad from Islamabad, Pakistan.

LONDON – The United States has told Pakistan it expects complete cooperation in investigations into the terrorist rampage in nuclear rival India, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday, saying the civilized world must unite against this menace.

Appearing at a news conference with British Foreign Secretary David Mililand, Rice said the perpetrators of attacks that have taken the lives of at least 170 in Mumbai, India, "must be brought to justice." She also said that Pakistan's response to the attacks will be a test of the will of the new civilian government.

"What we are emphasizing to the Pakistani government is the need to follow the evidence wherever it leads," Rice said. "I don't want to jump to any conclusions myself on this, but I do think that this is a time for complete, absolute, total transparency and cooperation and that's what we expect."

At President George W. Bush's direction, Rice is cutting short a European trip to visit India later this week. Six Americans were among those killed in attacks spanning three days in the Indian commercial capital Mumbai.

Rice said that "ultimately, the terrorists have to be stopped because they will keep trying to bring down" civilized nations and institutions.

At another point in the news conference, she made clear that the United States is working directly with the top leaders of Pakistan.

" The president of Pakistan is the elected Pakistani president and he therefore has the legitimacy that comes with election," she said. "The military now serves in a civilian government. We have obviously good contacts with all Pakistani officials ... but the government of Pakistan has a legitimate and elected president."

Indian leaders have pointed fingers at "elements in Pakistan" although it is not yet clear where the well-planned operation originated.

Attackers chose sites representing the city's wealth and tourism, and reportedly sought out Westerners as victims. Rice will see Indian leaders in New Delhi. She does not plan to go to Mumbai.

A previously unknown Muslim group called Deccan Mujahideen — a name suggesting origins inside India — has claimed responsibility for the attacks. But a top Indian police officer said Sunday he believed the attackers were from Lashkar-e-Taiba, long seen as a creation of the Pakistani intelligence service to help fight India in the disputed Kashmir region. The group was banned in Pakistan in 2002 under pressure from the U.S., a year after Washington and Britain listed it a terrorist organization.

Bush was in the Situation Room Monday morning, getting another update on the terrorist attacks.

Pressed about what the White House knows of the terrorists' motives, press secretary Dana Perino said: "The intelligence community is still assessing all aspects of the attack, the motivation, the plotting and planning and the operational details of it."

Asked if she was convinced that there was no Pakistani government role in the attacks, "I'm not going to comment on any possible involvement. ... I've heard nothing that says the Pakistani government was involved."

Later, Perino added the White House has "no reason" not to trust the Pakistanis. Perino noted that Pakistan, too, has been the victim of horrific terrorist attacks.

As for Americans' safety, Perino said "We do believe that all the American citizens are accounted for at this point."

Indian leaders have blamed unspecified "elements in Pakistan" for the 60-hour siege during which suspected Muslim militants hit 10 sites across Mumbai, but have not said whether they believe the terrorists had the backing of any state agencies. Pakistan denied it was involved and demanded evidence.

India has repeatedly accused Pakistan of complicity in terrorist attacks on its soil, many of which it traces to militant groups fighting Indian rule in Kashmir. The U.S. has tried to persuade Pakistan to shift its security focus from India, with which it has fought three wars, to Islamic militants along the Afghan border.

The Mumbai assaults raised fears among U.S officials of renewed violence between India and Pakistan. Both nations possess nuclear arms.

Rice said Pakistan's U.S-backed civilian president, Asif Ali Zardari, has pledged to improve relations.

Zardari replaced President Pervez Musharraf earlier this year and has established polite but distanced relations with Washington. Musharraf was a military man and a Bush administration ally against terrorism, but that closeness cost him support at home.