Arun Kumar

Washington, Feb 17 Condemning the terror attack on a Pune eatery in "strongest terms", the United States has said it would continue its "unprecedented" cooperation with India to combat terrorism and protect the two societies from such attacks.

"We condemn the bombing in the strongest terms and we send our condolences to the families of the victims," State Department Spokesman Gordon Duguid told reporters Tuesday in response to a question about Saturday's attack on a popular German Bakery in Pune.

Eleven people were killed and 57 injured when a bomb ripped through the bakery frequented by foreigners.

"We do note that the United States and India view enhanced cooperation in counter-terrorism as an important element to our bilateral strategic partnership," Duguid said. "We are working together as never before to combat terrorism."

Since the November 26, 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, "the United States and India are working together to enhance information collection, intelligence sharing, and analysis capabilities, and our governments are sharing significant information to help safeguard our countries," he said.

The information that the U.S. and India "have shared so far has been quite unprecedented, and we intend to continue to working with the Government of India to try and protect our two societies from these types of attacks," Duguid said.

Asked about a perception in India that the U.S. doesn't do enough to press Pakistan, the spokesman said: "There are a number of opinions in India on what the U.S. should do and these opinions have been held for decades, not just in the past year or so," the spokesman said.

Duguid pointed "to our cooperation over the past year in particular as evidence that we are working with India, we are working with Pakistan, against the threat that all three of us face from terrorists and extremist groups."