Tension is growing in the Indian sub-continent amid reports that the Mumbai militants had months of commando training in Pakistan.

The sole surviving gunman is said to be of Pakistani origin and reports claim the other nine militants who died in the attacks - which killed 174 people and injured almost 300 - were his countrymen or trained there.

Pakistan, which has categorically denied any links between the militants and its state agencies, has said it is prepared to move troops to the Indian border if the diplomatic situation worsens.

The country's president, Asif Ali Zardari, has appealed to India not punish his country for the attacks, according to reports.

Pakistan and India went to the brink of their fourth war after a 2001 attack on the Indian parliament that New Delhi also blamed on Pakistan-based militants.

Mr Zardari, whose wife Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a suicide attack blamed on Islamist militants last year, spoke by telephone with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Afghan President Hamid Karzai about the situation, his office said.

He also spoke with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband - who is due to meet US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice later in London. She is due to travel to India on Wednesday at the request of President George W Bush.

Meanwhile, in India, the fall-out from the massacre saw two of the country's top security officials - Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Maharashtra state chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh - hand in their resignations.

In Britain, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said UK security forces must review "what lessons need to be learnt" after the Mumbai attacks.

Her comments follow suggestions from a former SAS head and the chair of the Commons counter-terrorism committee that Britain would be ill-prepared to cope with a similar assault.

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