New Delhi  - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown met his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh on Sunday to discuss the security situation in the region and counter-terrorism issues following the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Brown is on an unscheduled visit to India and Pakistan to calm tensions between nuclear-armed neighbours after Indian security agencies accused a Pakistan-based militant group of masterminding the November 26 carnage.

Brown toured the border areas of Afghanistan on Saturday and met Singh over breakfast for a few hours Sunday, officials from India's foreign ministry said.

Senior officials including India's Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon were present during the meeting.

"Mr Brown's visit is essentially to express solidarity with the people of India after the Mumbai attacks," a ministry spokesman said.

India is understood to have shared evidence about complicity of the Pakistan-based elements in the attacks in the country's financial capital.

Officials said both countries discussed measures to strengthen their counter-terrorism cooperation as Britain offered more help in this field.

London has despatched a special team of police with expertise in dealing with terrorism to India.

Indian officials have blamed Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) for last month's attacks that left 173 dead, including 26 foreign nationals, 18 policemen and nine terrorists.

Brown's visit to the region follows US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's December 3-5 visit. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also visited India in the first week of December.

Britain shares the US view that any confrontation between India and Pakistan will impact the NATO-led offensive against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Officials sources told the IANS news agency that New Delhi urged Britain to apply international pressure on Pakistan to crackdown on terrorist groups. They said such efforts would also contain the resurgent Taliban.

Brown was scheduled to fly to Islamabad later on Sunday to meet President Asif Ali Zardari. (dpa)