New Delhi - Elite commandos on Saturday ended a 59-hour siege of Mumbai by killing three terrorists holed up inside the Taj hotel after the terrorist attacks India's financial capital left 183 people dead and threatened the country's ties with Pakistan.

'The hotel is under our control,' JK Dutt, chief of the National Security Guard commandos, said after fierce combat that began early in the morning and lasted nearly five hours.

'The commandos killed three terrorists after an intense gunbattle inside the hotel,' Dutt said. One commando was killed during the assault.

'There are no more terrorists in Mumbai now. All have been liquidated or captured alive,' ML Kumawat, senior home ministry official told reporters in Delhi.

Saturday's operations marked the culmination of efforts that began Wednesday night, when a group of what the Indian federal government confirmed as 10 terrorists, armed with automatic rifles and grenades, reached the shores of Mumbai by boat to unleash the brazen attacks that killed at least 183 people and injured 239.

In the confusion of the attacks, previous reports claimed the number of terrorists to be more than 20.

Among the victims were 14 police and 22 foreigners, including those from US, Germany, Japan, Canada, Australia, Italy, Israel and Jordan. The federal government, which confirmed the death toll, also said nine terrorists were killed while one was captured.

The attackers targeted 10 places across the city including a Jewish Centre and the Taj Hotel and the Oberoi-Trident Hotel frequented by foreigners and businessmen.

While 250 people were freed from the Oberoi-Trident Hotel, at least 30 hostages were killed in the complex, 20 of whom were massacred in one of the restaurants, officials said.

Eight people were killed in the terrorist assault on the Jewish centre, including US Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his Israeli wife Rivka. All of the victims were Israelis or US Jews, the Israeli Foreign ministry said.

Authorities said the searches were being continued in the Taj to ensure that there was no live explosives inside the hotel. There was no word on the recovery of bodies in the Taj.

Many guests - trapped inside in the rooms as the operations continued - recounted the days of horror.

'The blood, everywhere the blood,' a US national Patricia told NDTV. 'When we came down to the lobby, all the hundreds of policemen were standing looking so sad,' she said.

A previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the attacks, the deadliest in Mumbai since 1993 when a series of bombings killed over 250 people and wounded 700.

Indian security agencies suspected the hand of Pakistan-based militant groups such as the Lashkar-e-Toiba in the carnage.

The captured militant identified as AA Qasab from Faridkot in Pakistan said they wanted to go down in history for an Indian 9/11 and were inspired by the bombing of the Marriott hotel, the Times Now TV quoting defence officials.

Police said the militants knew the Taj hotel well as they found their way around quickly during the siege.

Newspaper reports said some militants had rented an apartment in the city months ago pretending to be students, while the NDTV reported that some militants checked into the Taj hotel to study its layout, locations and made detailed maps.

The terrorists showed Mauritian identity cards and posed as students in the hotel. Indian identity cards were recovered from two terrorists at the Oberoi Trident, the report said.

Delhi has blamed 'elements' in Pakistan for the attacks described in the local media as India's 9/11.

Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi that 'outrages' like the Mumbai attack would make progress in the bilateral peace process 'impossible.'

Islamabad said the two countries faced a common enemy and it would send a representative of its spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence to cooperate in the probe.

In a related development, the state government said it had 'enough proof' that the terrorists involved in Mumbai received instructions from Pakistan.

After the Mumbai operations ended, Prime Minister Singh reviewed the security situation with the top brass of the defence services and intelligence chiefs.

He also called for an all-party meeting on Sunday to discuss the country's approach to terrorism.

US president-elect Barack Obama phoned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday to express his condolences.

Obama had earlier said the terrorists who targeted innocent civilians could not defeat 'India's great democracy.'

'The United States must stand with India and all nations and people who are committed to destroying terrorist networks and defeating their hate-filled ideology,' he said.

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