WASHINGTON, March 18: US and Pakistani leaders, committed to cooperate against terrorism, pledged on Monday to work together to find those who carried out Sunday’s church bomb attack in Islamabad that killed two Americans.

President George W. Bush, in a brief telephone call with President Pervez Musharraf, said the United States would do whatever it could to help in the investigation, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters travelling with Bush on a visit to St Louis, Missouri.

Musharraf also spoke with Secretary of State Colin Powell about the incident, in which an attacker lobbed grenades as worshippers attended a Sunday service at a church near the American embassy, killing a total of seven people.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said: “Without going into any detail, I’d say that we have cooperation in this matter and commitment to bringing people to justice.”

Security cooperation between Pakistan and the United States has increased dramatically since last year, when Washington needed Pakistani cooperation to launch its offensive on the Taliban and Al Qaeda organization in Afghanistan.

Boucher said the United States was assisting Pakistani authorities with the investigation but no extra law enforcement personnel have yet gone to Pakistan.

Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca, also had talks in Islamabad on Monday with Pakistani Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider and Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar, a State Department spokesman said.

“Both of them reiterated the Pakistani government’s commitment to cooperate fully with us and their determination to see that justice is done,” Boucher said.

After the church attack, the State Department renewed a worldwide caution to Americans abroad, saying the incident showed that “terrorists” might be seeking softer targets in response to tighter security at official US installations.

“These may include facilities where Americans are generally known to congregate or visit, such as clubs, restaurants, places of worship, schools or outdoor recreation events. Americans should increase their security awareness when they are at such locations, avoid them, or switch to other locations where Americans in large numbers generally do not congregate,” the caution added.

But the State Department has not yet decided whether to change its staffing at the embassy in Pakistan. It paid for dependents to leave last year and then advised them in January that it thought they could come back.

“We’re reviewing all options with regard to our personnel and our dependents who are out there. But at this point, we haven’t made any decision,” Boucher said.—Reuters