Terrorist attacks in India that might have been launched from terrorist enclaves in Pakistan threaten to crumble the already fragile relations between the two neighbors. The incoming Obama administration will be challenged to bolster efforts to stabilize the region by pressuring Pakistani to rid itself of terrorists in its tribal regions.

Counterterroism experts have yet to prove that Pakistani-based terrorists caused the attacks on Mumbai, but India's security agencies have pointed the finger at Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamic military group. According to a new book, “;The Search for al-Qaida,”; by Bruce Riedel, an adviser on South Asia to President-elect Barack Obama, Osama bin Laden worked with a Pakistani intelligence agency to create Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Under the Pakistani government of Pervez Musharraf, the agency - Inter-Services Intelligence - operated independently of civilian control and continues to do so under President Asif Ali Zardari. To make matters worse, U.S. forces in Iraq bring 84 percent of their materiel through Pakistan and rely solely on ISI for information about al-Qaida and its branches in Pakistan.

Zardari has called for improved relations with India, even proposing a “;no first nuclear strike”; policy and turning South Asia into a nuclear-weapon-free zone through treaty. That flies in the face of the Pakistani security establishment, which continues to regard India as the enemy.

Obama and Gen. David H. Petraeus, the new leader of the Central Command, have called for Pakistan to focus more on militants in Pakistan's northwestern tribal regions. The United Nations, Pakistan ally China and other regional forces should be included in negotiations aimed at attaining stability.

The Taliban, which gave al-Qaida haven in Afghanistan prior to 9/11, is active in those regions but reportedly has broken with the terrorist organization since then and might be crucial to include in such talks.