US Attorney General Eric Holder says the Pakistani Taliban was behind the attempted car bombing in New York's Times Square.

Eric Holder, US Attorney General, said, "The Pakistani Taliban has directed this plot. We know that they helped facilitate it, we know that they helped direct it. And I suspect that we are going to come up with evidence that shows they helped to finance it. They were intimately involved in this plot."

The finding is a reversal, for the Obama administration, which had downplayed potential links to overseas terrorist groups in the immediate aftermath of the attack. It also, raises new questions about the U.S. relationship with Pakistan.

The country is widely known to have al-Qaida and other militant groups operating within its borders. 30-year-old Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized American citizen born in Pakistan was arrested last Monday.

It came, two days after authorities say he parked a crude car bomb in New York's busy Times Square.