ISLAMABAD - PAKISTAN has admitted for the first time that the Mumbai attacks, which killed more than 170 people, were planned partly in Pakistan and filed a case against eight suspects, six of them in custody.

India blamed last November's attacks on the banned Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), and last month handed over information which Islamabad has been using to investigate the attacks.

'The incident happened in India and part of the conspiracy was hatched in Pakistan,' Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik told reporters.

Pakistan previously acknowledged that only the lone surviving gunman - out of 10 who attacked high-profile targets in India's financial capital from Nov 26 to 29 - was one of its citizens. He is in Indian custody.

Mr Malik said the six in custody included Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah - both LeT leaders named by India as the masterminds of the attacks - and a person who sent an e-mail claiming responsibility for the attacks.

He said the culprits were 'non-state actors', meaning Pakistan's intelligence agencies had no hand in the attacks.

Mr Malik said the 10 gunmen used three boats to travel from Pakistan to Mumbai. He said detectives had traced an engine recovered from one of the vessels to a shop in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi. He said the shopkeeper had provided the phone number of the buyer which led to a bank account in the name of one Hammad Amin Sadiq.

Mr Malik said the authorities had arrested Sadiq and obtained from him information that led them to bust two 'hideouts of the terrorists', one in Karachi and one about two hours' drive away.

He described Sadiq, a 37-year-old who had been living in Karachi, as 'the main operator' but did not elaborate.

To strengthen its case, Pakistan would be sending 30 questions to India about the attacks, Mr Malik said. Among the additional details sought are the DNA of the 10 gunmen and information on intercepted phone conversations between the militants and their handlers.

'I want to show all of you, I want to show our nation, I want to show the international community, I want to show all those who have been a victim of terrorism, that we mean business,' he said.

He also suggested a wider international dimension to the crime.

For example, one telephone SIM card came from Austria, US$238 (S$357) was transferred from Spain to acquire a domain name for Internet communication that was registered in Houston, Texas, and money was paid in Italy, he said.

'Therefore, we will be requesting through Interpol to the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) to help us investigate it, because this is also a good piece of evidence,' he said.

Another domain name used by the attackers was registered in Russia, and a satellite phone, registered in a Middle Eastern country was bought by someone 'not based in Pakistan', said Mr Malik, giving no further details.

He said one suspect, Javed Iqbal, had been 'lured' back from Barcelona, Spain, where he had been living, and was now in Pakistani custody.

'It is not only Pakistan, but the system of the other countries has also been used,' Mr Malik said.

India has welcomed Pakistan's admission that the Mumbai attacks were planned partly in Pakistan but said Islamabad must now dismantle the 'infrastructure of terrorism' on its soil.

'This is a positive development,' said a Foreign Ministry statement.

'It remains India's goal to bring the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks on Mumbai to book, and to follow this process through to the end,' the statement added.

ASSOCIATED PRESS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE