WASHINGTON, Dec 4: The White House said on Thursday that the United States would stay engaged with Pakistan until investigation into last week’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai came to the conclusion it expected.

White House Press Secretary Dana Perino also said that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who concluded an unscheduled visit to India and Pakistan on Thursday, was “going to continue to push” the Pakistanis to ensure that those involved in the Mumbai attacks were brought to justice.

At the State Department, deputy spokesman Robert Wood said it was important for Pakistan to do “everything it can, in its power, to cooperate with this investigation and help all of us bring to justice these perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks”.

“We take this very seriously. And we’re going to continue to try to work with the Pakistanis to make sure they follow this to the conclusion that we expect,” said Ms Perino.

Asked if what Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice heard from Pakistanis convinced her that they were committed to rooting out those involved in Mumbai attacks, Ms Perino said: “Pakistan needs to act with resolve, urgency; they need to cooperate fully and transparently, and they need to keep the line of communication open between their country and India.”

The United States, she said, would continue to help Pakistan to make that happen.

State Department’s Robert Wood confirmed that Ms Rice’s message in Islamabad was that Pakistan needed to provide full, complete and transparent cooperation with the investigation.

Asked if the US was satisfied with Islamabad’s response to Secretary Rice’s message, Mr Wood said: “President Zardari has said all of the right things. What’s important now is that we have action. And so the secretary stressed the need for Pakistan to follow through on its pledges. And we’ll see how things progress.”

Mr Wood noted that Pakistan was on the front lines of terrorism and it understood what’s at stake were.

“The secretary came away, I think, from her conversations with Pakistani officials satisfied that Pakistan viewed this as a very serious issue and that they plan to cooperate fully. And that’s what we want to see happen.”

The United States, he said, had two objectives: first, to track down the perpetrators, and then to prevent these types of attacks from happening again.