Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is seeking support for a crime-fighting agency modeled on the FBI and tougher anti-terrorism laws after the deadliest attacks in 15 years killed at least 195 in Mumbai, the financial capital.

Singh called a meeting for today in New Delhi with all the political parties in Parliament to discuss the measures. In Washington yesterday, President George W. Bush pledged U.S. help to investigate the assault by 10 gunmen on the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower and Oberoi-Trident hotels, a Jewish center and restaurant.

The 60-hour siege puts a spotlight on security in the Hindu-dominated nation, where about 300 people died this year in attacks on markets, mosques and theaters before the attacks in Mumbai that ended early yesterday. P.R.S. Oberoi, chairman of the Oberoi Group that owns one of the hotels, urged the government to let businesses defend themselves.

“Their intention was to kill as many people as possible and do as much damage as possible,” Oberoi said of the terrorists. “It takes a long, long time for even one person to be armed. I wanted a security person for me, and it took nearly a year.”

Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Nov. 28 said elements from Pakistan, a predominantly Muslim neighbor that has fought three wars with India, were behind the attacks. Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi challenged India to provide evidence of a link.

‘Withstand This Trial’

Singh yesterday met with chiefs of defense services and intelligence agencies after the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party blamed his government for doing too little, according to the Press Trust of India, which quoted BJP leader L. K. Advani as criticizing the government’s “non-serious approach.”

Bush, briefed on developments by his national security team during an early-morning videoconference, pledged U.S. support to India and said the South Asian nation is resilient and will “withstand this trial.”

“The killers who struck this week are brutal and violent, but terror will not have the final word,” Bush said yesterday at the White House.

President-elect Barack Obama, briefed by Bush during the siege, called Singh Nov. 28 to offer condolences and said “he would be monitoring the situation closely,” Nick Shapiro, an Obama spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.

1993 Attacks

Indian Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said nine militants were killed. More than 295 people were injured, M.L. Kumawat, secretary of internal security at the Home Ministry, told reporters in New Delhi yesterday. S. Jadhav, an official at the city’s disaster management unit, put the death toll at 195.

The Times of India, the nation’s biggest newspaper, reported the death toll could be the highest from a terrorist attack in the country. The figure may surpass the death toll of 257 in a series of bomb blasts in Mumbai in 1993, it said.

The indiscriminate killing of businessmen and tourists in five-star hotels marks an escalation in India’s battle against Islamic extremism.

The Oberoi Group had tightened security after the Islamabad Marriott hotel was bombed in September and will seek a meeting between all hoteliers and state and national governments to review security, P.R.S. Oberoi said.

Security forces recovered four AK-47s, 55 magazines and four pistols from the Trident-Oberoi hotel complex and Nariman House, Kumawat said. The authorities have yet to compile a list of arms recovered from the Taj Mahal Hotel, he said.

Chabad Mission

Six Americans died, U.S. Ambassador David Mulford said in New Delhi. More U.S. citizens are missing. Gavriel Holtzberg, the 29-year-old rabbi who ran the Chabad mission in Mumbai, and his wife Rivka, 28, were among five people killed after gunmen raided the five-story Chabad House synagogue. Rabbi Leibish Teitelbaum, a Brooklyn native, was also killed, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement.

The attacks killed three Germans, one Japanese, two Canadians and a Briton, chief minister Deshmukh said. Two Australians died and more may have been killed, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said. Two French nationals died, President Nicolas Sarkozy said.

“No cause can make this acceptable, none, ever,” Sarkozy told reporters in Doha at a United Nations conference. “It’s barbarism.”

Indian forces yesterday combed the Taj Mahal hotel for unexploded devices and weapons after a shootout with three militants ended the siege. The ground floor of the 565-room hotel was flooded and strewn with debris after militants fought gun and grenade battles with special forces.

Knew Layout

The terrorists held out because they knew the layout of the century-old hotel and were well trained in explosives and guns, authorities said.

One terrorist arrested on Nov. 26 as the attacks began said the group planned to blow up the Taj Mahal hotel, Times Now reported. A popular venue for weddings and business meetings, the property has accommodated celebrities including Mick Jagger and Jacqueline Onassis, according to Tata Group’s Web site.

The attack is the deadliest in India since the 1993 bomb blasts that rocked Mumbai’s commercial landmarks, including the Bombay Stock Exchange building. Police blamed those attacks on members of the Mumbai underworld, belonging to Dawood Ibrahim’s gang. India says Ibrahim is hiding in Pakistan, a charge the neighboring country denies.

A little-known Islamist group, the Deccan Mujahedeen, claimed responsibility for this week’s shootings and explosions across the western coastal city, Indian Home Ministry official M.L. Kumawat said.

Kashmir Cause

The attackers began planning their assaults six months ago, India’s NDTV reported, citing an account from a captured terrorist. A seized global positioning system showed some of the group left Karachi, Pakistan, as early as Nov. 12, NDTV said.

Ten terrorists plotted the attacks for a year, the U.K.’s Sunday Telegraph reported, citing the police interrogation report of a person thought to be a member of the group. The terrorists were dedicated to fighting for an independent Kashmir, the disputed region claimed by India and Pakistan.

The group reached Mumbai in three speedboats from India’s Gujarat region after arriving in one boat from Karachi, the Mumbai Mirror said.

Lashkar-i-Taiba or Jaish-i-Muhammad, two Muslim extremist terrorist groups from Pakistan that have attacked India in the past, may be involved, MSNBC reported on its Web site, citing unidentified analysts and counterterrorism officials. The groups are linked to violence in the disputed Kashmir region.

‘Maritime Capability’

U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism officials said evidence in the past two days points to Lashkar-i-Taiba as being responsible, the New York Times reported. The group has a “maritime capability” and could mount a sophisticated operation in Mumbai, the Times reported, citing counterterrorism officials it didn’t identify.

“We came up against highly motivated terrorists,” Vice- Admiral J.S. Bedi, whose commandos led the assault against the militants, said in televised comments.

India will “go after” individuals and organizations behind the attacks, which were “well-planned with external linkages,” Singh said in a televised address, without identifying nations. “We will take strongest possible measures to ensure that there is no repetition of such terrorist acts,” Singh said on Nov. 27 in his address to the nation.

To contact the reporters on this story: Vipin V. Nair in Mumbai at vnair12@bloomberg.net; Stephen Foxwell in Mumbai at sfoxwell@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 29, 2008 22:27 EST