In New Delhi, Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran said today that ‘‘unsettling events’’ have taken place indicating that talks will have to be delayed.

The high-level team accompanying Singh to Mumbai included Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil.

Also present when he took stock of the security situation were Maharashtra Governor S M Krishna, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar.

The Prime Minister blamed the intelligence lapse on the lack of ‘‘micro-level’’ specific details in the warnings given by the Central intelligence agencies about an impending attack in Mumbai. While praising the Mumbai police and intelligence agencies, Singh pointed to an urgent need for an upgrade in intelligence gathering systems, to match technology accessible to terrorists.

While no special relief package from the Centre was announced for the blast victims, there were other promises: Terrorism will be eliminated, communal elements contained in the aftermath of the attacks and security forces’ capabilities upgraded to meet the threat. Surveillance gadgets at vital installations, electronic surveillance systems and communication interception capabilities would feature in all major establishments’ security plans, he promised.

At the Sion and King Edward Memorial hospitals, Singh, accompanied by wife Gursharan Kaur, stopped at the bedside of a few patients, enquiring and nodding as doctors and officials explained how the injured were rushed in, how the civic infrastructure coped, how many bodies had been identified and claimed. But it was the people of the unnerved city that Singh had a final salute for: ‘‘The spirit of Mumbai’’ admired by the whole nation.

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