Dialogue only after assurance from Pakistan: Tharoor

India today said it was never against talking to the neigbhours but the composite dialogue with Pakistan can only be resumed after Islamabad gives an assurance that New Delhi does not have to "fear" about Mumbai-like attacks emanating from their soil.

Making a fresh demand that Pakistan should bring the perpetrators of Mumbai attacks to book which will help in reviving the Indo-Pak dialogue, minister of State for external affairs Shashi Tharoor said prime minister Manmohan Singh's message to Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari was "very clear and consistent".

"The message is take necessary steps in your own country to bring to book those who perpetrated these horrors on our soil and then give us enough assurance for your own conduct that we will not have to fear this again.

"...But given that what happened in November, came from Pakistan, the first steps have to come also from Pakistan... And then we will certainly have a good basis for reviving talks," he told reporters here.

Emphasising that the parameters for the talks were "very clear", Tharoor said New Delhi has already said it is willing to engage but it expects "certain very positive" actions from the other side that its territory will not be "willfully used to do us harm".

"We have never been opposed to talking to our neighbours. On the contrary, prime minister Manmohan Singh has been a fervent advocate of good relations with Pakistan," Tharoor said.