New Delhi - Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the Mumbai attack suspects should be prosecuted and tried in Pakistan and not handed over to India, media reports said Wednesday.

Miliband, who is in India on a three-day visit, differed from New Delhi's demand that Pakistan extradite accused perpetrators of the attacks to stand trial in India.

Relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours have deteriorated rapidly since the November 26 attacks left 173 people including 26 foreign nationals dead.

India says the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group was behind the attacks and recently provided Islamabad evidence of involvement of elements in Pakistan in the carnage.

"I endorse India's anguish that it feels with the attacks that have come from across the border. I endorse strongly India's determination to see those who perpetrated these terrible crimes be brought to justice," Miliband told the NDTV network.

"But I think that given that we all have worked so hard for an independent sovereign judicial system in Pakistan we should let it take its course," he said.

Miliband noted that Pakistani authorities had said they wanted to prosecute the perpetrators of the attack as well as their associates.

"The evidence has been presented, the detentions have been made and now those people need to be brought to justice and if they are found guilty, they need to be punished," Miliband said.

"And since there isn't an extradition treaty between India and Pakistan at the moment, then let's ensure that the Pakistani judicial system takes its course," he said.

India's Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram accused Pakistan of doing nothing and said ties could "snap" if it did not help in investigating the attacks.

Asked what Islamabad was doing to help with the investigation, Chidambaram told Britain's Times newspaper, "Zero. What have they provided? Nothing."

"There are many, many links between India and Pakistan, and if Pakistan does not co-operate and does not help to bring the perpetrators to heel, those ties will become weaker and weaker and one day snap," he said.

In an interview broadcast on Indian news channels, Miliband reiterated that although the LeT group was responsible for the carnage, Britain had no evidence that the Pakistani government had directed the attacks.

He stressed that Pakistan had a primary responsibility to tackle terrorist outfits operating on its soil.

Miliband, who met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday, was due to visit villages in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh to get a first-hand account of rural developmental activities in India on Wednesday.

He was to tour the region with Rahul Gandhi, son of the ruling Congress party president Sonia Gandhi and heir to the country's Gandhi dynasty.

On Thursday, Miliband is scheduled to travel to Mumbai where he is due to deliver a keynote address at the Taj Hotel, which was ravaged by the terrorist attacks.

Miliband is scheduled to conclude his three-day India tour on Friday and travel to Islamabad, officials said. (dpa)