Brown offers Pakistan help against militants

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown offered Pakistan help in fighting militants yesterday and sought to ease renewed animosity between Pakistan and India fuelled by last month's attack in Mumbai.

In talks with Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari in Islamabad and earlier with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi, Mr Brown offered both countries help in tightening security and combating terrorism.

But tension between the nuclear-armed neighbours simmered on Sunday following a disputed violation of Pakistani airspace by Indian warplanes.

Pakistan said on Saturday Indian warplanes had inadvertently violated its airspace but New Delhi later denied the incursion and accused Islamabad of trying to divert attention.

Mr Brown said he had asked Mr Singh and Mr Zardari for permission for British police to question suspects arrested in both countries over the militant attack on Mumbai, India's financial centre. India has blamed the Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba for the three-day assault in which about 180 people were killed. Mr Brown backed that charge yesterday.

Speaking in the Pakistani capital, Mr Brown offered British support in fighting militants, including bomb disposal and airport security help, and a £6 million programme to tackle the causes of radicalisation through education.

These measures would help to "break the chain of terror that links the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan to the streets of the UK," he said.

Britain, the former colonial ruler, has a large population of Pakistani origin and British security forces fear its Muslim communities are a recruiting ground for Islamist militants.

The July 7, 2005, bombings in London which killed 52 people were carried by British Islamists with links to militants in Pakistan. "Three-quarters of the most serious terrorist plots investigated by the British authorities have links to al Qaeda in Pakistan," Mr Brown said.