A dossier given by Islamabad to the Indian High Commission July 11, a week before the meeting between Manmohan Singh and Gilani, may have proved to be a crucial swing factor in persuading Manmohan Singh that the civilian regime in Pakistan was finally getting serious about punishing the perpetrators and masterminds of the Mumbai carnage.

In the 36-page dossier, Pakistan admits unequivocally that the 26/11 attacks were 'planned, funded and facilitated' in Pakistan by activists of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) - the first time Islamabad has admitted in writing about the involvement of militants based in its territory in any terror attack in India.

The investigators 'unanimously agreed that substantial incriminating evidence is available on the record directly connecting the accused persons with the commission of the offence', according to the dossier, whose contents were excerpted in Monday's Hindustan Times, which also contains details of the funding of the operation.

Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and four other LeT operatives have been charged in an anti-terrorist court in Pakistan with the 'planning, preparation and execution' of the terrorist attack and functioned as 'operational handlers' of the 10 terrorists who unleashed the 26/11 carnage, the dossier says.

Senior officials in the Indian intelligence establishment said the dossier did confirm some of the details provided by India linking the terrorists to Pakistan.

'They have confirmed some details such as the Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) that the handlers were using to be in touch with the ten terrorists in Mumbai,' said a senior security official.

'We are still studying the full details of their dossier and what we sent them.'

It was in an acknowledgement of some of Pakistan's steps against the perpetrators of the Nov 26 Mumbai carnage that India decided to begin a limited dialogue at the level of foreign secretaries at Sharm el-Sheikh, official sources said.

But the form, timing and place of dialogue, as Manmohan Singh told parliament, will depend on Pakistan's tangible steps against terrorism directed against India.