India, US working better to tackle terror: US envoy

New Delhi, Dec 8: India and the US were working "better then ever before" to detect and prevent future terror attacks, US ambassador Timothy J. Roemer said Tuesday.

He made the remarks a day after a US court charged suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative David Coleman Headley with criminal conspiracy in the Mumbai carnage. A Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) team briefed Indian officials on the case.

"The visit of this FBI and Justice Department team is a direct follow-on to the counter terrorism cooperation initiative launched during the historic first state visit of the Obama administration," the US envoy said in a statement.

He was alluding to a crucial pact on expanding counter-terror cooperation inked after talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President Barack Obama in Washington Nov 24.

"Both our countries are working closely together to share information on the Headley-Rana case and working to detect and prevent future threats," he underlined.

"The US and India are working as partners better than ever before to facilitate information sharing, build capacity to prevent and respond to terror threats, and assist in the prosecution of those who commit terror," he said.

The envoy's remarks came even as Indian officials Tuesday indicated they were garnering evidence to charge Headley with plotting the 26/11 terror attack with a view to seeking his extradition from the US.

The breakthrough in the Headley-Rana case, the US envoy stressed, was "clear and concrete evidence that the US and India are fulfilling President Obama and Prime Minister Singh's vision of unparalleled and unprecedented cooperation in the counter terror arena".

A US federal court in Chicago Monday charged Pakistan-born American Headley with conducting extensive surveillance of targets in Mumbai for more than two years preceding the 2008 attacks and providing material support to LeT that allegedly masterminded the Mumbai attack.

Headley, along with Chicago-based Tahawuur Rana, were arrested in October by the FBI for planning terror attacks in India and Denmark.

Officials of the US department of justice and the FBI Monday briefed officials of India's home ministry and the National Investigation Agency which is probing the links of Headley-Rana duo to the Mumbai killings.

The FBI team is understood to have left for Pakistan Tuesday evening to trace the links of the Headley-Rana duo to militant groups there.