NEW DELHI, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vjapayee said on Friday his government needed time to decide on its response to a suicide attack on the country’s parliament in which 12 people died.

"Give some time to the government," he told reporters during a visit to the scene, where six guards died on Thursday defending parliament from a five-member suicide squad, who were all killed. A gardener also died in the crossfire.

"I cannot answer this question," he said, when asked if India would launch an offensive against Muslim guerrillas believed to be housed and trained in camps on the other side of a ceasefire line that divides disputed Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack but a spokesman of Vajpayee’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party said the government should consider such an offensive.

India accuses Pakistan of aiding Muslim rebels who have been fighting Indian rule in Kashmir since 1989 and often launch bloody attacks in the Himalayan state. Pakistan denies the allegations.