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NEW DELHI, Jan 16 (AFP) - India's hawkish Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani on Wednesday described as "path-breaking" Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's speech pledging a crackdown on Islamic extremists.

"In a way Musharraf's speech was path-breaking. I have not heard any earlier Pakistani leader denounce theocracy in the manner the general did," Advani told reporters.

But Advani, considered a hardliner in Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Hindu nationalist-led government, said India was closely monitoring the effects of the speech.

"What India looks forward to is that Pakistan ceases to be an exporter of terrorism. And that reassurance can come only after we have watched the situation on the ground," Advani said.

Pakistan has repeatedly rejected India's allegations that it backs militant groups fighting Indian control of Muslim-majority Kashmir, but says it lends moral and diplomatic support to indigenous movements there.

Advani returned to India on Tuesday after a visit to the United States where he met senior officials including President George W. Bush to put forward India's case against Pakistan's "cross-border terrorism."

He said Indians were bound to be skeptical of Musharraf's pledges unless they saw him living up to them.

"Today Pakistan is a financier of terrorism. It is arming terrorists, providing them shelter, training them and infiltrating them" into India, Advani said.

Musharraf on Saturday pledged to crack down on Islamic extremists groups in Pakistan but ruled out the extradition of Pakistanis to India.

The two countries have massed troops to their border since a December 13 attack on India's parliament which New Delhi blames on two Pakistan-based groups working at the behest of Pakistani intelligence.

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