India on Tuesday squarely blamed Pakistan for sponsoring last week's suicide attack on parliament, but gave no hint of its intended response.
In the government's first formal statement in parliament on the events of December 13, Home Minister L.K. Advani said the attack was "the most audacious and most alarming act of terrorism during the nearly two decades-long history of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in India."
His comment came just hours after the United States appealed for restraint and a cooling of rhetoric on both sides.
Pakistan reacted to what it described as Advani's "unfounded accusations" by reiterating its condemnation of last week's attack and its denial of any involvement on the part of the Pakistani intelligence services.
Islamabad also said it was willing to take part in a joint inquiry into the attack, an offer which India has rejected.
Advani confirmed that evidence showed it was carried out jointly by two Pakistan-based militant groups -- Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad -- which were known to "derive support" from Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.
All five suspected militant gunmen were killed in the assault on parliament, which left eight others dead, most of them security personnel.
Advani said the operation was clearly aimed at "wiping out the entire political leadership" of India.
"It is time for all of us ... to ponder why the terrorists and their backers tried to raise the stakes so high," the minister said.
"The only answer ... is that Pakistan ... is unable to reconcile itself with the reality of a secular, democratic, self-confident and steadily progressing India."
Apart from a general pledge to "stamp out terrorism", Advani remained tight-lipped on how India was planning to retaliate.
Previously, he had stated that the government was "seriously considering all options," including possible military strikes against alleged terrorist training camps in Pakistan.
In a meeting earlier Tuesday with MPs from his Hindu-nationalist BJP party, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had vowed that "the punishment will be as big as the crime."
BJP legislators have been among the most vocal in their demand for an aggressive response from the government, including allowing Indian security forces to pursue Muslim militants over the disputed Kashmir border with Pakistan.
India on Monday placed its military on a "very high alert" along its Kashmir borders with Pakistan.
Concern that the rising tensions could escalate into a full-blown conflict prompted an appeal from US Secretary of State Colin Powell for the South Asian nuclear rivals to avoid any further escalation.
"We are concerned," Powell said. "We would not wish to see this escalate to a direct exchange between the two nations going after each other, as opposed to going after a common enemy, which is terrorist organizations that conduct these kinds of horrible, horrible attacks."
But Vajpayee indicated that India's patience was wearing thin.
"Some people have been asking us to exercise restraint. We have been exercising restraint. I want to ask them what this will result in?" Vajpayee said.
"The crime has been committed on our soil, so we will probe it and we will punish it," Vajpayee said, while adding that evidence pointing to the involvement of the Pakistan-based militant outfits had been sent to Islamabad.
Indian opposition parties said they were disappointed with Advani's reluctance to even hint at how New Delhi might respond, but pledged their support to any "considered" action the government might take.
"If all options are closed and we use the option of war, it cannot be wrong," said Shivraj Patil, deputy parliamentary leader of the main opposition Congress party.
"We are not scared of it, but it should not be the first option," Patil told the lower house -- AFP
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