U.S. opposes India military response

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- The United States wants to dissuade India from military responses to the Mumbai terrorist attacks and instead work with Pakistan on extremism, sources say.

Domestic pressure is being heaped on Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to strike back at Islamic militant networks based in the disputed Kashmir region, which many Indians believe are responsible for last week's coordinated terror assaults that killed at least 183 people.

But members of the Bush administration and U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's transition team are urging him to temper any military moves in Kashmir and instead work with a new, pro-Western Pakistani president, Asif Ali Zardari, to make a breakthrough between the bitter rivals on the need to control extremism, analysts told the newspaper.

The Times said experts both inside and outside of government don't believe Singh will automatically turn to a military response if it is determined that Kashmiri militants were behind the attacks.

They cite Singh's contention that a military conflict with Pakistan would slow his country's unprecedented economic expansion and that he sees Zardari as a positive departure from his predecessor, President Pervez Musharraf.