Off the injured list and back on the world stage, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday gave an impassioned defence of American demands that India and other countries do more to tackle terrorism and global warming.

Opening a three-day visit to India, Clinton sought to emphasise common interests, symbolised by the terrorist attacks in the seaside city of Mumbai last November that killed 166 people. "It must be stopped," she said, adding that the United States cannot do it alone.

A sense of unease

Part of the backdrop to Clinton's visit is a sense of unease among Indians that the Obama administration is focusing more on its anti-terror campaigns in Afghanistan and Pakistan at the expense of attention to the world's largest democracy.

Clinton is the highest-ranking administration official to stop in India, where she has been widely popular since visiting as first lady in the 1990s.

Showing no visible effects from elbow surgery in mid-June, Clinton met with business leaders, was serenaded by female entrepreneurs and participated in a televised discussion at a college on what's wrong with education in India and the US.

It was the first event of her day, however, that underscored most strongly the central message she carried from Washington.

Committed to the fight

"The bottom line for me is our government is committed in the fight against terrorism," she told reporters at the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower after meeting privately with a group of survivors of last year's attacks on the Taj and an adjacent hotel.

"And we expect everyone" who shares the American desire to end violent extremism "to take strong action to prevent terrorism from taking root on their soil and making sure that terrorists are not trained and deployed - and we believe that around the world."

Her voice rising, she noted the lasting effects from the September 11, 2001, attacks in the US and said no one should doubt American resolve.

"We are fighting wars to end the threat of terrorism against us, our friends and allies around the world," she said at a poolside patio at the Taj that had been strewn with bodies after last year's attack. She indicated that in New Delhi, the capital where her trip continues Sunday, she would speak with government officials about how India can play a stronger role against terrorism.