US wants India to support Pak in tackling terrorism

In its first substantive remarks on India, the Obama Administration wants New Delhi to support Pakistan in rooting out terrorism arguing that it has a "big stake" in the success of the democratic government in the Islamic nation.

The US also said it backed a global role for India and the central question is how the two countries can work together to address the regional, global challenges.

"I think it will be important for India to make clear that as Pakistan takes steps to deal with extremists on its own territory that India will be supportive of that," Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg said yesterday.

The American assessment of what it expects from India while dealing with the volatile situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan was given by Steinberg in his address at the prestigious Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think-tank in the first major foreign policy speech on India by a top Obama administration official.

Acknowledging India's efforts in the reconstruction of Afghanistan in the recent years, Steinberg said President Obama would set out the US strategy for the region in the coming weeks.

He said India should "look for ways to contribute to an overall environment which can then lead to further efforts to root out extremists... There is obviously a complex history between the two countries but we will encourage India to see that it has a big stake in the efforts that we will be advocating to work both with Afghanistan and Pakistan."