WASHINGTON, July 16: Officials in Washington watch with concern as high-level peace talks between India and Pakistan are postponed, hoping that this delay is temporary.

US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Richard A. Boucher reminded both countries that their “cooperation over the long-term is very important” for peace and prosperity in the South Asian region.

While offering to help India investigate the Mumbai blasts that apparently derailed the talks, US officials are still reluctant to accept the Indian claim that groups based in Pakistan carried out the attacks.

“Some of the groups that are suspected in these bombings are actually outlawed in Pakistan,” Mr Boucher, the Bush administration’s point man for South Asia, reminded India.

He urged both countries to avoid the ‘discord of the past’ by working together to “really get to the group behind the Mumbai blasts.”

“We should look at these horrible events not as a reason to fall back into the discord of the past but as a reason to move forward together,” he said.

“We have seen a lot of progress in India-Pakistan relations and I hope that progress is maintained and when it comes to issues of terrorism they can find that they need to work together,” he added.

Mr Boucher also asked India to share the results of the investigation with the international community; “Let the government of India tell us who did it … I think we all have our suspicions about who might have done it but to me this is the time to let the investigators find out who is really behind it.”

In an indirect reference to India’s claims that Pakistan-based groups were behind the attacks, Mr Boucher said: “We need to see if there are sources of terrorism in other countries — we need to work with those countries and try and move things forward so that we can get to these groups.”

At an earlier briefing, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told a journalist he was being ‘presumptuous’ when he suggested that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice should discuss the terror attacks with the visiting Pakistani foreign minister. When the journalist insisted that the attacks were carried out by terrorists who had camps and bases in Pakistan, the spokesman said: “I wouldn’t try to make any connection.”

Talking to US news outlets, the officials said that Washington sees India as a strategic ally which can help counter China’s growing influence in Asia while Pakistan is seen as an important Muslim ally.