Pakistan called Friday for a resumption of talks with India, welcoming a call from US President Barack Obama to cool tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours with an "effective dialogue".
"We hope that the US and other friends of Pakistan and India will encourage and facilitate this process," foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said in a statement released in response to Obama's comments.
Referring to Obama's call for "effective dialogue" between Pakistan and India, the spokesman said: "We cannot agree more".
"It has always been Pakistan's position that all long-standing issues between our two countries should be resolved through a constructive and result-oriented dialogue," he added.
Pakistan and India launched a slow-moving peace process in February 2004 but it came to a halt after New Delhi blamed last November's Mumbai attacks on Pakistan-based militant organization Lashkar-e-Taiba.
A group of 10 heavily-armed extremists carried out a 60-hour assault on India's financial capital, leaving 165 people dead and more than 300 injured.
Obama said Thursday he was "very concerned" about extremists on the border between Pakistan and India.
After talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the G20 economic summit, he told reporters the pair had discussed the threat posed by the militants on the frontier between the nuclear-armed neighbour states.
Singh said in London that the ball was in Pakistan's court over the deadly Mumbai attacks, pressing Islamabad to "convince us that it is sincere" about tracking down those responsible.
"Pakistan has consistently maintained that instead of indulging in a blame game, both sides should, without further delay, resume the composite dialogue process," the Pakistan foreign ministry spokesman said.
"Pakistan and India joint anti-terrorism mechanism exists and provides a viable avenue to address mutual concerns," he said.
