The highest ranking officer of the US armed forces, Admiral Michael Mullen, has warned of fresh attempts by terrorist outfits to push India and Pakistan into a military conflict. Admiral Mullen, who will be discussing counter-terrorism with top Indian military officials during his two-day visit to New Delhi, said the Mumbai attack had showed how a small group of terrorists could have a strategic impact. The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff told this to reporters on board his plane bound for New Delhi. He has since arrived in New Delhi. Calling Lashkar-e-Toiba an emerging larger, regional, global threat, he expressed concern over merging of terrorist organisations in the region between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Earlier, US Special Envoy on Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, who was also visiting India, had compared the Lashkar-e-Toiba to the Taliban. Admiral Mullen also said he was in New Delhi a few days after the terror attack in Mumbai in November 2008 and that he was impressed by the Indian restraint during and immediately after the attack. Admiral Mullen is expected to work on three defence pacts between India and the US ahead of President Barack Obama’s New Delhi trip in November this year. These pacts, which have been deadlocked, are the Logistics Support Agreement, the Communication Interoperability and Security Memorandum Agreement and the Basic Exchange and Co-operation Agreement for Geospatial Co-operation. In Admiral Mullen’s parleys with defence minister A K Antony, national security adviser Shivshankar Menon and other top Indian military brass, counter-terrorism, military exercises between the two countries and military-to-military co-operation are expected to figure.