The United States is fully backing a Pakistani military crackdown on hotbeds of al Qaeda and Taliban activity amid mounting concern over terrorism, President George W Bush's national security adviser said on Sunday.
President Musharraf's 10-month-old peace deal with tribal elders in north-western Pakistan that was aimed at marginalising pro-Taliban militants, has failed, said Stephen Hadley, the adviser.
"It has not worked the way he wanted. It has not worked the way we wanted it," he said on the ABC television programme "This Week." Concern about a resurgent militant threat has grown over the last two months, Hadley added. "And we're responding to it. In the short run, we need to take it on operationally," he said without elaborating.
Musharraf, a key ally in the US-declared global war on terrorism, has been moving more troops into western areas of the country near the Afghan border, said Hadley, who appeared on four US network interview programmes. "We are supporting that effort in order to get control of the situation," he told ABC.
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