Islamabad - The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Pakistan's own probe had linked militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) with 10 fighters involved in last month's Mumbai attacks, a report which Islamabad has declined to comment on.

A Pakistani security official told the WSJ that at least one top LeT commander, Zarar Shah, has admitted a role in the Mumbai attack during interrogation.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Shah's admission is backed up by US intercepts of a phone call between Shah and one of the attackers at the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower, one of the sites of terrorist strikes that left more than 170 people dead in India's financial hub.

At the Interior Ministry, a spokesman declined to comment on the report.

LeT was set up by Pakistani intelligence agencies for their proxy war in the Indian-administered part of divided Kashmir. It was banned after Pakistan joined international alliance against terrorism but it continued attacks inside India.

A second person familiar with the investigation said Shah told Pakistani interrogators that he was one of the key planners of the operation, and that he spoke with the attackers during the rampage to give them advice and keep them focused.

According to the militant leader the 10 gunmen were trained in Pakistan's part of mountainous Kashmir and then went by boat from Karachi to Mumbai.

Before leaving, the attackers spent at least a few weeks in Karachi, a city of around 13 million population, where they were trained in urban combat to hone skills they would use in their assault, the WSJ report said.

Relations between India and Pakistan have soured since Mumbai carnage. New Delhi has demanded Pakistan to extradite the terror suspects to India. Islamabad has condemned the strikes but says it will take action against anyone according to its own laws if India shares evidence with it.

The disclosure could add new international pressure on Pakistan to accept that the attacks originated within its borders and to prosecute or extradite the suspects, the WSJ reported in its online edition. (dpa)