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LONDON - Britain said Friday it was probing reports that Britons of Pakistani origin were among gunmen who staged the Mumbai attacks, but warned there was as yet "no evidence" to support the claims.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband said it was too early to tell whether or not any of the attackers were British, while Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh had not mentioned a British link in a telephone conversation Friday.
"We have spoken to Indian authorities at a high level and they have said that there is no evidence that any of the terrorists either captured or dead are British," a foreign ministry spokesman in London said Friday.
According to British media reports, Indian television news channel NDTV has reported that "British citizens of Pakistani origin" were among the attackers who stormed two luxury Mumbai hotels and other key targets on Wednesday, leaving up to 155 dead, among them foreign hostages.
Singh said Thursday that those behind the attacks were based "outside the country" -- which was widely interpreted as meaning neighbouring Pakistan.
Miliband said British detectives, who have already travelled to India, will work with their Indian counterparts to shed light on the source of the coordinated attacks in India's financial capital.
"We obviously will want to work very, very closely with the Indians on that, but it is too early to say whether or not any of them are British," he told Sky News television.
"Obviously, the priority of the Indian authorities is to complete this operation. They can then start identifying who are the terrorists, what is their background."
"At no point has the prime minister of India suggested to me that there is evidence at this stage of any terrorist of British origins," Brown said after his talks with Singh.
"But obviously these are huge investigations that are being done and I think it will be premature to draw any conclusions at all."
Responding to swirling rumours about where the Mumbai militants came from, anti-terror police in northern England issued a statement playing down any local links.
"At this stage we are not in receipt of any intelligence or information linking the events in India to our area," said the Leeds-based Counter Terrorism Unit of West Yorkshire Police
Britain has a large Pakistani-origin population, concentrated in particular in northern England, which came under scrutiny after suicide bombings in London in July 2005.
Three of the bombers were found to be from Leeds in West Yorkshire.
Miliband, who visited Pakistan last week, said British investigators would leave no stone unturned.
"In terms of the origins of the attack, the planning of the attack, the groups that were responsible for the attack, that is something we are intensively looking at," said Miliband.
Britain sent teams of police experts to Mumbai to help in the investigation the day after the attacks, a measure which the Foreign Office says is usual in such circumstances.
London's Metropolitan Police dispatched a team of forensic and explosive experts to Pakistan, after then-president Pervez Musharraf sought British help following the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on December 27.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said London has "no knowledge" of any British links with the Mumbai attackers.
But she said: "We will do anything we can to help Indian authorities through what is obviously a very difficult time.
"We will do what is necessary. At the moment the priority is to support the immediate needs."
Indian commandos were fighting it out inside the city's historic Taj Mahal hotel early Saturday local time, where a tiny group of heavily-armed gunmen where engaged in a fight to the death as the more than 52-hour-old battle entered its final stage.
- AFP /ls
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