US, India holding discussions on access to Headley

"Those discussions of providing Indian investigators access to Headley are going on between our government and the Indian government at this time. It is part of the plea agreement that Headley would cooperate with Indian authorities," Pakistani-American Headley's lawyer John Theis told reporters.

Theis would not comment on how much more time it would take before Indian investigators are finally given a date to quiz Headley and said "those kind of discussions will happen without the media knowing the specifics of time and place". Theis said he is not part of the discussions going on between the US and Indian governments but expects to be present when Headley is quizzed.

"I would expect to be present anytime that my client is interviewed by law enforcement officials, be it from India, US or any other country," he said. Theis refused to give any more details. Headley had last month pleaded guilty to plotting the Mumbai attacks and avoided the death penalty and extradition to India, Pakistan and Denmark by agreeing to be interrogated by foreign agencies on US soil.

The US has said it is working "at the highest level" to provide India access to Headley, who had scouted targets for the 26/11 Mumbai attacks during his several trips to India. US President Barack Obama had assured Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during latter's recent visit to US that India would get access to Headley.

Singh had raised the issue with Obama when the two leaders met in Washington last week on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit. India has for long been asking that its investigators be allowed to quiz Headley directly to unravel the entire conspiracy behind the attacks.