India has demanded that Pakistan hand over 40 people it believes were involved in attacks on Indian soil and other serious crimes, the Indian Foreign Minister announced today.

Pranab Mukherjee also called on Pakistan to follow up on its recent arrest of several militants by completely dismantling the facilities of terrorist groups operating on its territory.

"We have given them lists of 40 persons not one, not 20... and we have also pointed out that their denial is not going to resolve the issue," Mr Mukherjee said during a parliamentary debate on the Mumbai attack.

"Please follow it up seriously," he said. "If it is not followed to the logical conclusion - complete dismantling of the infrastructure facilities available from that side to facilitate terrorist attack, of banning the organisations - how does that help us?"

It was India's first official response to Pakistan's crackdown on militant groups, which began on Sunday with a raid on a camp used by Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group India blames for the Mumbai attack.

Pakistani officials say they have arrested about 20 militants, including Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, LeT's operations chief and the alleged mastermind of the Mumbai attack, and Zarar Shah, LeT's communications chief.

However, Pakistan says it wants proof of their role in Mumbai and has categorically ruled out handing them to India, pledging to try them on its own territory if there is evidence against them.

"India has not provided any evidence so far," Rehman Malik, the head of Pakistan's interior ministry, told reporters today. "We have told India that we will extend full cooperation to bring the culprits to justice."

India has not specified how it will respond if the 40 suspects it wants are not handed over, but it has said it is not considering military action.

During today's parliamentary debate, Mr Mukherjee was asked by one angry lawmaker why India was not attacking Pakistan. "That is no solution," he replied.

After LeT militants attacked India's parliament in 2001, India and Pakistan massed more than half a million troops on their common border and almost went to war for the fourth time since independence in 1947.

Pakistan has warned that if India reacts the same way this time, it will pull back Pakistani troops fighting al-Qaeda and Taleban militants near the Afghan border, potentially jeopardizing US and Nato forces in Afghanistan.

John Negroponte, the US Deputy Secretary of State, arrived in Islamabad today to try to prevent that outcome, while at the same time pressing Pakistan's government to take stronger action against militant groups.

Mr Negroponte is expected to meet Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan's President, and Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Pakistan's Foreign Minister.

Western diplomats say he is likely to urge them to ban Jamaat-ud-Dawa, an Islamic charity which is led by LeT's founder and widely regarded by security experts as a front for the militant group.

The UN said yesterday that it had added JuD and four militant leaders to a list of people and groups facing sanctions for ties to al Qaeda or the Taliban, including a freeze on assets and travel ban. Among the four were Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, the JuD leader and LeT founder.

However, he vowed today to fight that decision in Pakistani and international courts, and challenged Indian and US officials to produce evidence against his organisation.

India's Home Minister, meanwhile, announced an overhaul of security laws and national infrastructure aimed at fixing the intelligence and other security lapses exposed by the Mumbai attack.

Among the measures are the creation of a federal investigative agency, like the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the establishment of 20 counter-insurgency and anti-terror schools for training commandos.

"The finger of suspicion unmistakeably points to the territory of our neighbour Pakistan," said Palaniappan Chidambaram, whose predecessor as Home Minister resigned after the Mumbai attack.

"We cannot go back to business as usual," he told parliament.

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