Obama counsels 'effective dialogue' between India-Pakistan

London: India and the US on Thursday said they will step up counter-terrorism cooperation even as President Barack Obama counselled "effective dialogue" between India and Pakistan after his meeting here with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Both leaders spoke, but with different emphasis, on the need for increasing coooperation in meeting the challenges of terrorism after their first meeting on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) summit. "We did discuss the issue of terrorism - we discussed it not simply in terms of terrorism emanating from Pakistan, although obviously we are very concerned about extremists and terrorists who have made camp in the border regions of Pakistan, as well as in Afghanistan," Obama said at a press conference. With developments in Pakistan and Afghanistan figuring prominently in the discussions, Manmohan Singh made it clear that Pakistan must show absolute sincerity in bringing the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack to book before the talks can be resumed between the two countries. "We discussed development in Afghanistan and Pakistan. We both agreed that our two countries must work together to counter the forces of terror," Manmohan Singh said at his press conference. The prime minister described the meeting as "useful and productive" and said the two leaders focused on development of bilateral relations and how problems of the region can be resolved through interaction between India and the US. Obama, in a detailed account of the discussions on climate change, offered US and European technological help to India in its efforts to tackle climate change. "We're going to have to combine the lower-hanging fruit of energy efficiency with rapid technological advances - to the extent that in some case we can [forge] international cooperation and pool our scientific and technical knowledge around things like developing coal sequestration," he said. "That could be extremely helpful," he added.