ISLAMABAD (AFP) -- Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi offered India investigators on Tuesday to help probe the Mumbai attacks, but stopped short on a request to hand over alleged suspects.

Qureshi said the government ""wanted to get to the bottom of"" who was responsible for last week's atrocities and was ready to extend all possible cooperation and assistance.
The minister said both governments needed to show ""maturity, seriousness and patience"" amid rising tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals, after suspected Pakistani militants killed 188 people in Mumbai.
""The government of Pakistan has offered a joint investigation mechanism and we are ready to compose such a team which will help the investigation,"" he said in a televised statement.
The investigation panel, to be cochaired by the Indian and Pakistani national security advisers, would meet as soon as possible, the Foreign Ministry said in a separate statement.
However Pakistan's top diplomat added later that Pakistan was still weighing India's demand to hand over 20 suspected militants said to be on its soil, including the founder of the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group named as the prime suspect in the attacks.
""We will respond to it after consultations. We don't want to take any step in haste. We don't want to promote confrontation -- we want to defuse the situation,"" Qureshi told reporters after a meeting of political parties.
The Indian Foreign Ministry on Monday summoned Pakistan's high commissioner and made a formal complaint to Islamabad, accusing ""elements"" in Pakistan of being behind the militant attacks and demanding it take ""strong action.""
Qureshi held a special briefing for foreign diplomats in Islamabad Tuesday to explain Pakistan's point of view on tensions with India.
Diplomats from several Western and Arab countries attended the special briefing, a ministry official told AFP.
""This briefing explained Pakistan's position to foreign envoys on current tensions with India and the country's role in the fight against terrorism. It reassured that Pakistan will extend all sorts of help whenever they (India) are going to ask for it,"" the official said.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani also convened a meeting of the country's main political parties in Islamabad to develop a joint response to the current tensions with India.
The joint statement issued by the parties after their meeting said they wanted to engage India to establish friendly relations, but added ""the political parties took strong exception to the unsubstantiated allegations made in haste against Pakistan.""
The statement added that the parties firmly supported the government and the armed forces ""in defending Pakistan's security interests.""
The statement, however, included no direct response to New Delhi's demand that Pakistan hand over terror suspects, including Hafiz Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Other prominent names include Maulana Masood Azhar, chief of the Jaish-e-Mohammed rebel group, and Dawood Ibrahim, wanted in India on charges of masterminding serial bombings in Mumbai in 1993 that killed around 300 people.
Pakistani information minister Sherry Rehman told reporters Tuesday that the government was doing its best to foster peace in the region. ""We believe that we are doing our utmost as far as India is concerned,"" she said.
Pakistan and India do not have an extradition treaty and Pakistan has in the past said it would not hand over any of its citizens to India. It has also denied that Ibrahim is on its soil.