WASHINGTON, Dec 22: The Pentagon said on Monday that America’s top military official was in Islamabad for emphasising the need to catch those responsible for the Mumbai terrorist attacks while the State Department said the United States wanted the culprits brought to justice.

The two statements coincide with reports in the US media that Washington has re-launched its efforts to prevent an armed conflict between India and Pakistan.

A Pentagon press release said the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff discussed “ongoing efforts against extremists, particularly those responsible for the Mumbai attacks” with Pakistani officials in Islamabad on Monday.

The Pentagon pointed out that in the wake of the attacks Admiral Mullen visited leaders in Pakistan and India. During a Pentagon news conference on Dec 10, Admiral Mullen said safe havens in the ungoverned areas of Pakistan allowed the terrorists to plan and train for the attacks in Mumbai, the note said.

At the State Department, Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto told a briefing that the United States wanted to see those who carried out the Mumbai attacks brought to justice.

“That’s something that we’ve tried to impress upon all the governments in that region; it’s something that we try to do here also,” he said.

Mr Fratto said the United States was “communicating very well” with the Pakistanis who understood “their responsibility and the important role they play in the war on terror”.

Commenting on the US desire to maintain its communication with Pakistan, diplomatic observers in Washington pointed out that it had stayed engaged with India and Pakistan after the Mumbai tragedy.

But the decision to send Admiral Mullen to Islamabad on Monday followed media reports that India had called a meeting of its senior envoys from across the world to brief them on the situation emerging out of last month’s attacks.

The sources noted that India had held similar consultations before the 1971 war and that’s why Washington was taking its role in preventing yet another India-Pakistan war very seriously.

This was Admiral Mullen’s second visit to Islamabad in two weeks. Earlier this month, the Bush administration also sent Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Islamabad and New Delhi to defuse tensions.

The outgoing secretary of state also had the blessings of the upcoming Obama administration and she is believed to have briefed the president-elect on her efforts to prevent yet another India-Pakistan war.

While the US media and think-tanks insist that India can still launch “precision strikes” at certain targets inside Pakistan, Bush administration officials quoted in the US media say that Washington would play its role to prevent such an attack. But that is the only assurance that officials in the Bush or Obama team seem willing to offer to Pakistan. And this too is conditional.

According to diplomatic sources, Pakistan’s National Security Adviser Mahmud Ali Durrani, who was in Washington last week, was told in so many words that if Islamabad wanted Washington to prevent an Indian military strike, it would have to catch those responsible for the Mumbai carnage and ensure that they were brought to justice.