"Both sides strongly condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and underscored it as a major threat to democracy, pluralism, international peace and security. They reiterated that there can be no justification for any act of terrorism on any grounds," an Indian Embassy statement said after the day-long meeting on Thursday.

India and the US asked all States to abide by their commitments under the UN Global Counter Terrorism Strategy adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2006 and sought finalisation of the draft UN Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism expeditiously.

"It is imperative for the international community to come together to combat terrorism in a long-term, sustained and comprehensive manner," the statement said.

The Indian delegation was led by K C Singh, Additional Secretary for International Organisations at the Ministry of External Affairs while the US team was headed by Coordinator for Counter-terrorism Dell Dailey.

A host of issues, including regional counter-terrorism efforts, threat assessments in South Asia, Middle East and South East Asia, bio terrorism, Anti-terrorism Assistance Training Programme and co-operation in the field of forensic epidemiology were discussed by the two sides. Other issues such as terrorist finance and money laundering, ideological dimensions of terrorism, information sharing and widened cooperation for preventing terrorist acts also figured during the talks.

"Both sides agreed to identify measures to strengthen institutional linkages leading to closer interaction and cooperation," the statement added.