NEW YORK: American intelligence agencies have for the first time directly linked the suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul to Pakistan's ISI and indicated that it might have been authorized by the top officials as those involved in assisting militants were not renegades, a media report said.

The conclusion was based on intercepted communications between Pakistani intelligence officers and militants who carried out the attack on July 7 that left nearly 60 people, including two Indian diplomats, dead but intercepts were not detailed enough to issue any specific warning, the American officials told the New York Times.

The government officials, it said, were guarded in describing the new evidence and would not say specifically what kind of assistance ISI officers provided to the militants. They said the ISI officers had not been renegades, indicating that their actions might have been authorized by superiors.

Indian and Afghan officials had accused the ISI of orchestrating the attack within days but this is first time that the American intelligence agencies have indicated they have evidence of the powerful Pakistani intelligence agency's involvement in the attack.

American officials, the Times said, believe that the embassy attack was probably carried out by members of a network led by Maulavi Jalaluddin Haqqani, whose alliance with al-Qaeda and its affiliates has allowed the terrorist network to rebuild in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

The disclosure of the evidence about attack on the Indian embassy comes within three days of President George Bush confronting Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani with evidence during their meeting in Washington of connivance of ISI with the militants which is leading to increasing casualties among American and NATO forces.

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