Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has summoned political leaders to develop a national consensus policy on India as bilateral tension grows after a militant attack on Mumbai, Gilani’s spokesman said on Monday.

India said on Sunday it had proof of a Pakistani link to the Mumbai attacks that killed nearly 200 people, raising the prospect of a breakdown of peace efforts between the nuclear-armed nations and renewed confrontation.

Gilani has convened the national security conference on Tuesday to discuss the prevailing situation in the context of present relations with India, said Gilani’s spokesman, Zahid Bashir.

Pakistan condemned the attacks as a barbaric act of terrorism and has denied any involvement by state agencies. It has vowed to cooperate although it backtracked on a decision to send the chief of its main ISI security agency to India to help with the investigation, instead saying an ISI representative would go.

Pakistan and India went to the brink of their fourth war after a 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament also blamed on Pakistan-based militants. Both sides massed hundreds of thousands of troops on the border and fought daily artillery duels across their frontier in the disputed Kashmir region.

The United States, alarmed war between its allies would derail efforts against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, helped cool tempers. The two sides declared a ceasefire in Kashmir in late 2003 and soon embarked on a peace process Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari had been trying to push forward.

Pakistan has warned that if tension with India escalates, it would have to move troops from its Afghan border -- where it is battling al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters responsible for violence in Pakistan and Afghanistan -- to the Indian border. That would be a big setback for international efforts to bring peace to Afghanistan.

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