The incoming Obama administration on Tuesday declared that the Mumbai terror attacks [Images] threw up new challenges for American diplomacy.

US Secretary of State designate Hillary Clinton [Images] listed the 26/11 strikes as among the six major new challenges for American leadership though diplomacy that has emerged since the November presidential elections.

In her testimony to a Senate confirmation hearing, the US President-elect Barack Obama's [Images] pick for the top diplomatic job said new conflicts in Gaza, mass killings and rapes in Congo, reports of record high green house gases and rapidly melting glaciers and even an ancient form of terror piracy reasserting itself in modern form in the horn of America were the other challenges.

Seventy days since the presidential election offered fresh evidence of these challenges to US diplomacy, she said.

Clinton also vowed to build on the economic and political partnership with India, as she said that US and the world leaders must work together to "solve the most pressing problems."

"We will build on the economic and political partnership with India, the world's populous democracy...," she said.

The former US First lady also acknowledged that emerging markets like India, China, Brazil [Images] and South Africa [Images] were feeling the "effects" of the current financial crisis and wanted developed and developing countries to work on strategies to provide economic stability in the world.

She also pledged to renew US leadership through a "smart power" mix of diplomacy and defence.