UPDATE 1-India urges "sense" in Pakistan over militancy

(Adds comment from Pakistani human rights group)

NEW DELHI Jan 3 (Reuters) - India's prime minister said on Saturday he hoped sense would prevail in Pakistan over tackling militancy and reiterated a demand that Islamabad hand over those suspected of plotting the deadly attacks in Mumbai.

In a rare echo of Indian criticism of Pakistan since the Mumbai attacks, Pakistan's main human rights group said the government could not deny its terrorism problem or lapse into complacency now that the threat of war with India was waning.

India has blamed Pakistan-based militants for the attacks in Mumbai, in which 179 people were killed, and which led to a surge in tension between the nuclear-armed neighbours despite Pakistani condemnation of the violence.

"We are committed to rooting out terrorism and we sincerely hope that better sense will prevail with Pakistan," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told reporters in the northeastern town of Shillong.

Faced with global pressure to act, Pakistan launched raids on militants on its soil after the Mumbai attacks in November. But India said Pakistan was not sincere and needed to do more.

India wants Pakistan to dismantle what it says are camps training militants to attack India, and extradite at least 40 suspects.

Pakistan denies fomenting trouble in India and says it would act if India provided credible evidence. Pakistan has denied any state involvement in the attacks, blaming "non-state actors".

"The leadership of Pakistan would recognise ... the demand from all civilised territories that the perpetrators must be brought to book," Singh said. "We hope that these criminals will be handed over to us to face trial in our country."

In the Pakistani city of Lahore, I.A. Rehman, secretary general of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said the government had to face up to the terrorist problem.

"The government of Pakistan must no longer stay in a state of self-denial," Rehman told a news conference.

While tension remains high, most analysts say fear of Indian strikes on suspected militants targets in Pakistan, which could spark war, was easing.

"We would also like to caution the government of Pakistan against lapsing into its traditional complacency with the disappearance of the war clouds," Rehman said.

"Blinking at the existence of terrorist outfits within the country, some open and others disguised, will amount to self-annihilation and greater isolation," he said. "The state's commitment to root out terrorist groups must be total."

India says it is preparing a dossier of evidence that it will share with "friendly countries" which st citizens when 10 Muslim gunmen rampaged through some of Mumbai's landmarks with automatic guns and grenades, killing 179 people. (Reporting by Krittivas Mukherjee, Devidutta Tripathy and Mubasher Bukhari in Lahore; Writing by Krittivas Mukherjee; editing by Tony Austin)