WASHINGTON: The Pentagon said on Monday that America’s top military official was in Islamabad for emphasising the need to catch those responsible for the Mumbai terrorist attacks while the State Department said the United States wants the culprits brought to justice.

The two statements coincide with reports in the US media that Washington has re-launched its efforts to prevent an armed conflict between India and Pakistan.

The Pentagon press release identified Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, chief of the Army Staff, and Director General ISI Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha as the two Pakistani officials who participated in the talks with Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen, who arrived in Islamabad earlier Monday.

The discussions, according to the Pentagon, focused on “ongoing efforts against extremists, particularly those responsible for the Mumbai attacks” in November.

The Pentagon also identified Lashkar-i-Taiba and other extremist groups associated with it as responsible for the attacks that killed almost 200 people.

The statement noted that the Pakistani government had taken steps to break up the group believed responsible for the attacks that held the Indian financial centre hostage for three days.

‘Pakistani officials have arrested members of Lashkar-i-Taiba and other extremist groups involved with the attacks,’ the note added.

This was Admiral Mullen’s seventh visit to Pakistan since assuming office in October 2007.

The Pentagon pointed out that in the wake of the attacks Admiral Mullen visited leaders in Pakistan and India. During a Pentagon news conference on Dec. 10, Admiral Mullen said safe havens in the ungoverned areas of Pakistan allowed the terrorists to plan and train for the attacks in Mumbai, the note said.

At the State Department, Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto told a briefing that the United States wanted to see those who perpetuated the Mumbai attacks brought to justice.

‘That's something that we've tried to impress upon all the governments in that region; it's something that we try to do here also,’ he said.

Mr Fratto said the United States was ‘communicating very well’ with the Pakistanis who understood ‘their responsibility and the important role they play in the role on terror.’

Commenting on the US desire to maintain its communication with Pakistan, diplomatic observers in Washington pointed out that had stayed engaged with India and Pakistan after the Mumbai.

But the decision to send Mr Mullen to Islamabad on Monday followed media reports that India had called a meeting of its senior envoys from across the world to brief them on the situation emerging out of the Mumbai attacks.

The sources noted that India had held similar consultations before the 1971 war and that’s why Washington was taking its role in preventing yet another India-Pakistan was very seriously.

This was Admiral Mullen’s second visit to Islamabad in two weeks.

Earlier this month, the Bush administration also sent Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Islamabad and New Delhi to defuse tensions between South Asia’s two nuclear powers.

The outgoing secretary of state also had the blessings of the upcoming Obama administration and she is believed to have briefed President-elect Barack Obama on her efforts to prevent yet another India-Pakistan war.

While the US media and think-tanks insist that India can still launch ‘precision strikes’ at certain targets inside Pakistan, Bush administration officials quoted in the US media say that Washington would play its role to prevent such an attack.

But that is the only assurance that the Bush or Obama officials seem willing to offer to Pakistan. And this too is conditional.

According to diplomatic sources, Pakistan’s National Security Adviser Mahmud Ali Durrani, who was in Washington last week, was told in so many words that if Islamabad wanted the US to prevent an Indian military strike, it will have to catch those responsible for the Mumbai attacks and ensure that they were brought to justice.

The Americans warned Pakistan that now was the time to act and to uproot groups like Lashkar-i-Taiba and Jamaat-ud-Dawa.

They insisted that half-hearted crackdowns and placing terrorist leaders under house arrests would not satisfy the international community, which demands more serious actions.

In an editorial published on Monday, The Washington Post also underscored some of these concerns.

The newspapers claimed that the Americans had ‘overwhelming’ evidence to prove the involvement of Pakistan-based elements in the Nov 26 attacks on Mumbai.

The Post insisted that Pakistan must acknowledge the truth and stop making ‘excuses’ if the war on terror is to be won.

The newspaper also said that the Americans found Pakistan’s crackdown on Jamaat-ud-Dawa following the UN Security Council's ban on Jamaat-ud-Dawa ‘unconvincing’ and want more.

The Post noted that similar actions taken after the 2002 attack on India's Parliament could not prevent Lashkar-i-Taiba from re-emerging under a new name.

The newspaper said that Washington was not impressed by Pakistan’s decision to place LeT and Jamaat-ud-Dawa leaders under ‘loose house arrest.’

The Post said that apologists for Mr Zardari's civilian government point out that the president's bluster probably covers his lack of authority to crack down on LeT or its allies in Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

‘If the war on terrorism is to be won, the excuses for Pakistan must end,’ the newspaper said.