Pakistan must make a concerted effort to prosecute those responsible for the Mumbai attacks and end the movement of militants across its border into India, an Obama administration official said on Wednesday. Speaking at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake said both India and Pakistan must also undertake "a sequenced series of actions to rebuild confidence and cooperation."

"Such actions must include progress by Pakistan to prosecute those responsible for the Mumbai attacks and concerted efforts to stop militant infiltrations across the Pakistan-India border," he said. Home Minister P. Chidambaram is currently on a visit to the US where he is urging Washington to press Pakistan to act against the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks.

Blake noted that improved relations between India and Pakistan, similar to that enjoyed by the neighbours between 2004 and 2007, would be an important part of a "successful strategy" in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"Afghanistan and Pakistan are two distinct countries, but we cannot succeed in either Afghanistan or Pakistan without stability in both," he said, adding that in order to eliminate the safe havens of extremism and terror in both countries, "we must use all of the tools available to the international community - military, diplomatic, and development." He advocated an approach that addresses both short and long-term challenges such as education, agriculture and reliable energy.

The Obama administration has pressed for a resumption of the composite dialogue between India and Pakistan. This dialogue was disrupted by the Mumbai attacks last November, which India and the FBI trace back to Pakistan. Blake refrained from injecting Washington into the resumption of the dialogue, saying this was an issue for India and Pakistan to work through on their own.

Blake, who served as deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in New Delhi from 2003-2006, praised the progress made by India and Pakistan beginning in 2004, when the then Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf met the then Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and pledged that Pakistan would not let territory under its control be used to support terrorism. Blake praised India and Pakistan for continuing political-level talks in the wake of the Mumbai attacks.

Noting that bilateral commerce between India and Pakistan was only slightly more than $2.1 billion, he said trade would provide a significant opportunity of cooperation between the two countries.

Discussing the evolution of the US-India relationship, he said, “One mark of the seismic changes taking place in US-India relations is that our bilateral dialogue is less and less about resolving old legacy issues that divided us such as non-proliferation, and more and more about seizing new opportunities, both bilateral and multilateral.”

“Bilaterally, the role of the two governments is increasingly to find ways to remove barriers to cooperation between our scientists, businesspeople, educators and others,” Blake said. This would come about by an expansion of the role of the CEO Forum, which is made up of senior businesspeople from both countries.

Commenting on the disputed presidential elections in Afghanistan, he said no one expected these elections to be perfect. Nevertheless, he said, it was very important that this process be seen as credible and inclusive. “In the coming days we should see the end of the counting process conducted by the Independent Election Commission. The next stage will be for the Electoral Complaints Commission to adjudicate complaints,” he said.