Domestic Pressure

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947. Fearing another conflict, Western leaders have urged India to show restraint and Pakistan to act decisively against militants.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been under domestic pressure to respond robustly to the Mumbai attacks.

"We are not planning any military action," Defence Minister A.K. Anthony told reporters in New Delhi.

"But at the same time, unless Pakistan takes actions against those terrorists who are operating from their soil against India and also against all those who are behind the Mumbai terrorist attack, things will not be normal," he said.

Washington has intensified diplomatic pressure to keep India-Pakistan relations from worsening and to keep Pakistan committed to the US-led war on terrorism.

Pakistan has arrested scores of activists from the Jammat-ud-Dawa, the alleged front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, and says it will abide by a UN decision to put the group's founder Hafiz Saeed on a sanctions list of people and organisations linked to al Qaeda.

But a similar Pakistani crackdown on Lashkar and Jaish-e-Mohammad after the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament was widely regarded as a sham.

Mukherjee said it would be difficult to resume the peace process with Pakistan unless Islamabad demonstrated a firm resolve to stamp out such groups. "Words must be followed by actions," he said.