ISLAMABAD (Pakistan) - PAKISTAN shuttered more offices of a charity allegedly linked to the Mumbai attack but said it cannot prosecute key suspects unless India shares evidence - a sign of Islamabad's effort to ease international pressure while avoiding a domestic backlash.

Successful cooperation between the nuclear-armed neighbors in investigating the deadly terror attack could help the US raise a regional effort against Al-Qaeda and the Taleban along the Pakistan-Afghan border.

Pakistan and India have fought three wars in 61 years, and deep distrust colors their relations. But Pakistan's need for foreign aid and worries over its own rising violence by Islamic militants could push the government to go further, analysts said.

'Pakistan wants to stay engaged with the international community,' said analyst Hasan-Askari Rizvi. 'That means Pakistan will have to pursue these policies of banning groups and arresting certain people over some time to establish credibility.'

Since last month's attack on India's commercial capital, in which more than 170 people were killed, Pakistan has arrested at least two of the operation's reputed masterminds.

Officials began closing offices of an Islamic charity, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, after the UN Security Council branded it a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the outlawed Pakistan-based extremist group blamed for the Mumbai assault.

The Interior Ministry said on Friday that police have closed 65 Jamaat-ud-Dawa offices and arrested 31 activists. Pakistan also put the charity's leader, Lashkar founder Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, under house arrest and ordered banks to freeze the group's assets.

Still, the shaky civilian government must pay heed to the potential for a popular outcry if it acts too strongly.

Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which insists it cut ties to Lashkar after that group was banned in 2002, runs schools and clinics and has helped earthquake victims, gaining support among a population suspicious of both India and the United States.

In a first sign of dissent, about 500 people marched to a UN office in Pakistan's portion of divided Kashmir on Friday chanting slogans against the UN and India.

Among their chants: 'India your death came, Lashkar came, Lashkar came!'

Indian authorities have released what they say are the names and Pakistani hometowns of the 10 gunmen who attacked Mumbai. After interrogating the only surviving attacker, Indian investigators allege all 10 were trained in Pakistan.

Pakistani officials insist they won't extradite any suspects to India, and they have repeatedly said their longtime rival has not handed over any evidence to support its claims about the attack's origins and backers.

'Our own investigations cannot proceed beyond a certain point without provision of credible information and evidence pertaining to Mumbai attacks,' Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said.

Analysts say promoting peace between India and Pakistan could help quell Taleban and Al-Qaeda activities in Pakistan's northwest by removing an incentive for the Pakistani military to nurture extremists as proxy fighters.

The US, whose troops in Afghanistan are threatened by militants across the border in Pakistan, has pressed the Pakistanis to cooperate with India. In New Delhi on Friday, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said it is imperative 'these attacks be thoroughly investigated'.

Lashkar-e-Taiba is the biggest of a host of militant groups that emerged from the resistance to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s and threw themselves into the insurgency in India's portion of Kashmir, the only Muslim majority region in heavily Hindu India.

Former President Pervez Musharraf banned Lashkar after it was blamed for an attack on India's Parliament in late 2001, right on the heels of the Sept 11 attack on the US that led Pakistan to ditch its Taleban allies in Afghanistan.

Analysts suspect Pakistan's security agencies allowed Lashkar to operate, though at a reduced level, because it helped keep pressure on India over Kashmir. The government denies that.

Some analysts say violence in Pakistan appears to have forged greater consensus in military and political circles that nurturing extremists threatens the viability of the nation.

'This is an opportunity because the international community will support Pakistan if they take action,' Mr Rizvi said.

Much also depends on how far India is willing to go.

Mr Mahesh Rangarajan, an Indian political analyst, noted the reaction of India's government so far has been 'very measured', with top officials explicitly saying war is not an option.

'But India has to share some evidence,' he said. 'At some stage there has to be cooperation with Pakistan. If Pakistan's action is serious, it will create some sense of trust.' -- AP