ISLAMABAD - Pakistan acknowledges the Mumbai attacks were partly plotted on its soil and announced criminal proceedings against eight suspects.
They include three alleged ringleaders.
It's a sign that Pakistan is heeding U.S. and Indian demands to punish those responsible for the deaths of 164 people.
India calls the announcement a "positive development" and the news has been welcomed by Washington.
The U.S. had feared tensions from the attacks triggered between the nuclear-armed neighbours would distract Pakistan from its struggle against the Taliban and al-Qaida.
Pakistani Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik says he wants to assure the international community that Pakistan means business.
Analysts said the admission of a link to its citizens meant Pakistan was no longer "in denial."
They note the U.S. and India would still push for convictions against the plotters and look for evidence that Islamabad had dismantled anti-India militant groups it once cultivated as proxy armies against its giant neighbour.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars since 1947, creating a poisonous legacy that meant it was difficult for Pakistan's shaky civilian government to acknowledge Indian, U.S. and British allegations.
New Delhi says the 10 gunmen -- only one of whom was captured alive -- were Pakistanis and that their handlers in Pakistan kept in touch with them by phone during the three-day assault on 10 sites including two five-star hotels and a Jewish centre.
Indian officials have also accused Pakistani intelligence agents of involvement in the attacks -- a charge denied by Islamabad, which had been working to improve ties with New Delhi before the strikes.
Malik said Pakistani investigators had determined three boats were used by the attackers to sail from southern Pakistan to India. He said investigators had busted two hide-outs of the suspects.
He said other leads pointed to Europe and the United States and Pakistan would ask the FBI for help.
Detectives traced an engine recovered from one of the boats to a shop in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi. Malik said the shopkeeper provided the phone number of the buyer, which led to a bank account in the name of Hammad Amin Sadiq.
