(Adds Indian foreign ministry comment)

By Krittivas Mukherjee

NEW DELHI, Feb 5 (Reuters) - India has for the first time directly accused Pakistan's ISI spy agency of links to the planners of last year's deadly militant attacks on Mumbai.

"The perpetrators planned, trained and launched their attacks from Pakistan, and the organisers were and remain clients and creations of the ISI," Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said in a speech in Paris.

His comments stepped up India's rhetoric against Pakistan and reflected its growing frustration. Menon accused Pakistan of "prevarication" in investigating the November attacks, which killed 179 people, and bringing the perpetrators to justice.

The speech was delivered on Wednesday but was released to the media on Thursday by India's foreign ministry. Relations between nuclear-armed powers India and Pakistan have been strained since the attacks, and India has put dialogue on hold.

Pakistan said Indian officials should avoid making such statements at a time when Islamabad was in the process of investigating the matter.

"One should not jump the gun. Some patience should be shown," foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said.

Analysts and diplomats said Menon's remarks reflected a feeling in New Delhi that the civilian government in Islamabad would do nothing that would show the ISI in a critical light.

"These comments are a result of that endless wait, and India believes that the civilian government of Pakistan has been given a tight brief by the army not to allow the heat to reach the corridors of the ISI," Naresh Chandra, India's former ambassador to the United States, told Reuters.

"The patience is coming to an end and it is beginning to evolve as an endless exercise as India is waiting for a fair response from Pakistan for far too long."

MILITANT GATHERING

India blames the banned Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group for the attacks in its commercial hub and said there must have been support from Pakistani official agencies, but generally never mentions the ISI by name.

India's foreign ministry said late on Thursday that representatives of three militant groups had participated in a public meeting on Wednesday in Pakistan's Muzaffarabad.

"No effort was made by the authorities to curb the activities of these groups...We strongly condemn the license that banned terrorist organisations continue to enjoy in territory under Pakistan's control," the ministry said in a statement.

Pakistan has denied any involvement by state agencies in the Mumbai attacks and says it is investigating a dossier of information from India, to which it has yet to respond.

India said the dossier contained the confession of a surviving attacker, satellite phone intercepts between the attackers and their handlers in Pakistan, and a list of Pakistani-made weapons used by the militants.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday that Pakistan must fully investigate the attacks and cooperate with the Indian government on the issue.

Menon said a promising peace dialogue with Pakistan had fallen victim to repeated breaches of a 2003 ceasefire between the two countries, increased cross-border infiltration and attacks on Indian interests and cities from Pakistan.

He said India was willing to work with Pakistan and the world community could do much to help bring peace to South Asia.

"For instance, arms sales to Pakistan totally unrelated to the fight against terrorism or extremism are like whiskey to an alcoholic, a drug reinforcing an addiction, skewing the internal political balance, and making the consolidation of democracy more difficult." (Additional reporting by Bappa Majumdar; Writing by Alistair Scrutton; Editing by Sugita Katyal and Mark Trevelyan)

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