Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush pledged full U.S. support to India after the 60-hour siege of Mumbai killed hundreds, including at least six Americans, in the bloodiest assault in the South Asian nation in 15 years.

“The killers who struck this week are brutal and violent, but terror will not have the final word,” Bush said yesterday as returned to the White House after spending Thanksgiving at Camp David in Maryland. India “can count on the world’s oldest democracy to stand by their side.”

The president conferred on the attacks with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and his national security advisers in a secure video conference at Camp David, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. U.S. Ambassador to India David Mulford in New Delhi also participated in the 7:30 a.m. Washington time call.

At least 195 people died in the attacks on the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower and Oberoi-Trident hotels, a Jewish center, a railway station and a restaurant, said S Jadhav, an official at the Mumbai’s disaster management unit. More than 295 people were injured in attacks that ended early yesterday, Mumbai time.

Six Americans died in the carnage, and an unknown number are missing, Mulford said. India, with 1 billion people, is the world’s largest democracy.

“We pledge the full support of the United States as India investigates these attacks, brings the guilty to justice and sustains its democratic way of life,” Bush said in a statement on the South Lawn of the White House.

Bush on Oct. 8 enacted a law that lets U.S. companies such as General Electric Co. sell atomic fuel and technology to India’s burgeoning energy sector for the first time in three decades. The U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement lifts a ban on supplying fuel to the world’s largest democracy, imposed after India tested an atomic bomb 34 years ago.

Bush, Obama Contacts

Throughout the siege, the president said he was in contact with President-elect Barack Obama to share information on developments in Mumbai, as U.S. authorities worked “to ensure that American citizens in India are safe.”

Obama called Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh late Nov. 28 to offer condolences. “He told the prime minister that there is one president at a time, but that he would be monitoring the situation closely,” said Nick Shapiro, an Obama spokesman, in an e-mailed statement.

Bush said Indians are “resilient” and “strong,” and have built a multiethnic democracy that “can withstand this trial.” Mumbai, the financial capital, will bounce back and “continue to be the center of commerce and prosperity.”

Improved Ties

Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan have sought improved relations since 2003, a year after they came close to fighting a fourth war since the countries were formed. The two countries are in talks on issues including control of the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir, commercial cooperation, terrorism and drug trafficking.

Bush made no comment on whether the U.S. was concerned about the potential for increased tensions between the two nuclear-armed South-Asian neighbors, nor did he elaborate about the kind of the U.S. may be offering.

Perino said in response to a question that she couldn’t be specific about whether the FBI is helping authorities in India with the investigation. “We’ve offered assistance, and that’s all we can say for now,” she said in an e-mail.

“As the people from the world’s largest democracy recover from these attacks, they can count on the world’s oldest democracy to stand by their side,” the president said.

While more than 300 people have died in attacks on Indian markets, mosques and theaters this year, the indiscriminate killing of businessmen and tourists in five-star hotels marks an escalation in the country’s fight again Islamic extremism. Singh will convene an all-party meeting today to seek support for a nationwide agency mirroring the Federal Bureau of Investigation to probe terror-related attacks.

To contact the reporter on this story: Roger Runningen in Washington rrunningen@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 30, 2008 00:01 EST