NEW DELHI (AP)

Cricket is one of the few things India and Pakistan agree on. But with New Delhi accusing Islamabad of not curbing Pakistani-based terrorists blamed for the Mumbai attack, India, yesterday, cancelled a cricket tour to Pakistan - a clear sign of a freeze in relations.

In the decades since gaining independence from Britain in 1947, Pakistan and India have fought three wars and teetered on the brink several more times. Yet, cricket is a national obsession for both countries and has helped thaw tensions.

Optimistic sign

India's national cricket team went to Pakistan in 2004 for the national teams' first full series of matches in 14 years, a trip hailed as an optimistic sign as the nuclear-armed rivals got a fledgling peace process going.

That has been undone by last month's Mumbai assault, which left 164 people and nine of the 10 attackers dead. Relations are strained again and the peace process is on ice.

India alleges a Pakistan-based Islamic group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, sponsored the attacks on hotels, a train station and markets in the country's financial capital and has demanded that Islamabad move against the militants.

Pakistan has arrested some suspects and clamped down on a charity, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, purportedly linked to the previously outlawed Lashkar. But officials say that to do more, they need evidence of the group's complicity - a demand India says it cannot fulfil until the investigation is over.