NEW DELHI: India wants the anti-terrorism mechanism (ATM), which will have its first-ever meeting in Islamabad on Tuesday, to work in accordance with the September 2006 decision of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pervez Musharraf.

As a five-member delegation led by K.C. Singh, Additional Secretary in the External Affairs Ministry, left for Islamabad on Monday, senior officials said India did not see the ATM as an "episodic" forum. Three representatives from the Union Home Ministry and another from the External Affairs Ministry make up the rest of the delegation.

According to the officials, Tuesday's meeting will have a broad agenda, where specifics, of course, will be discussed.

They confirmed that the February 19 firebombing of the Samjhauta Express would figure in the talks with the Pakistani side.

During their September 2006 meeting in Havana, Dr. Singh and Gen. Musharraf "decided to put in place an India-Pakistan anti-terrorism institutional mechanism to identify and implement counter-terrorism initiatives and investigations."

India has already presented Pakistan with information relating to some terrorist attacks on its soil.

According to the officials, India had even asked for help from Pakistan in tracing specific individuals involved in the Varanasi blasts of March 2006.

While New Delhi is expecting a response from Pakistan on these issues, Islamabad would like India to share information on those behind the Samjhauta Express blasts, in which a large majority killed were Pakistani nationals.

Interestingly, days before the India-Pakistan ATM meeting, Indian and American officials met here on February 28 to "discuss cooperative strategies to fight the global menace of terrorism" in their joint working group on counter-terrorism.

The senior officials, however, denied that there was any link between the Indo-U.S. meeting and the India-Pakistan efforts to cooperate in the fight against terrorism. According to them, the Indo-U.S. meeting had been scheduled earlier.

In recent weeks, Washington has stepped up pressure on Pakistan to "do more" in the battle against terrorism: Vice-President Dick Cheney and Defence Secretary Robert Gates were among those who carried this message to Gen. Musharraf in Islamabad.

Giving testimony before a Senate committee, Mike McConnel, the new American Director of National Intelligence (DNI), said on February 27 that Mr. Cheney and others had conveyed to Islamabad that "we have to be more aggressive in going after the Al-Qaeda in Pakistan."

According to Mr. McConnel, the Al-Qaeda had set up camps in tribal country in Pakistan — in the north-west frontier region. "And, to the best of our knowledge, that the senior leadership, number one [Osama bin Laden] and number two [Ayman Al-Zawahiri], are there, and they are attempting to re-establish and rebuild and to establish training camps." This, he said, had made the U.S. "very concerned."

Asked whether a fresh attack on the U.S. would emanate from the Al-Qaeda in Iraq or Pakistan, the DNI replied, "My belief is the attack most likely would be planned and come out of the leadership in Pakistan."

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