PARIS, Dec 15: Tensions between Pakistan and India over last month’s attacks in Mumbai overshadowed a conference on Sunday aimed at fostering cooperation between Afghanistan and its neighbours.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Indian Junior Foreign Minister Anand Sharma sat side by side at a news conference following the informal, closed-door talks, but they traded barely concealed barbs.

Mr Sharma insisted India had acted “with remarkable restraint and maturity” in responding to the Nov 26 attacks, suggesting it was up to Pakistan to act to “dismantle terrorist networks” operating on its soil.

“We all know where these terror outfits are and where the perpetrators are,” said Mr Sharma. “The only way forward is to ensure that democracies flourish and the perpetrators of the dastardly attacks are brought to justice quickly.”

Mr Qureshi said Pakistan is eager to cooperate with its neighbours in the fight against terror and warned against assigning blame.

“We’ve offered cooperation and we mean well,” he said. “It is so easy to get sucked into a blame game, so easy to point fingers, but we don’t want to do that, because that would be counterproductive.”

He added: “The question under consideration is: How do we join hands to overcome this menace, how can we cooperate to put an end to this menace?”

Asked whether he and Mr Sharma had interacted during the conference, which was held in Paris suburb La Celle Saint Cloud, Mr Qureshi said: “Obviously, if you spend the day together you are bound to speak to each other .... It was in a very cordial atmosphere, a very friendly tone.”

Besides Pakistan and India, the conference also brought together top Russian, US and European officials, including EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner.

Among the six countries that share a border with Afghanistan, only Iran was absent from the Paris talks. French foreign ministry officials said last week the Iranian foreign minister had called off a planned visit to Paris after a diplomatic spat with France.

“Too bad for him,” said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, the conference’s organiser. The Iranian foreign ministry summoned the French ambassador to Tehran on Wednesday to protest French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s recent comment about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. On Dec 8, Sarkozy had said: “It is impossible for me to shake hands with someone who dared to say that Israel should be wiped off the map.”

The fight against terrorism and efforts to boost cooperation between Afghanistan and its Central Asian neighbours topped the agenda at Sunday’s talks, Mr Kouchner and other participants said. No concrete measures or projects were announced at the news conference.—Agencies