Cross-border strikes sought

U.S. commanders in Afghanistan want to raid into Pakistan

Spokesmen for the White House and State Department declined to comment, as did a spokeswoman for Patterson in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital.

The discussions over how to combat al-Qaida and Pakistani militant networks in the tribal areas have been going on for nearly two years, as American policy-makers have weighed the growing militant threat in the border area against American action that could politically weaken President Pervez Musharraf, a close ally in the global counterterrorism campaign.

A few weeks after the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in December, two senior American intelligence officials reached a quiet understanding with Musharraf to intensify secret strikes against suspected terrorists by Predator aircraft launched in Pakistan.

American officials have expressed growing alarm that the leaders of Pakistan's new coalition government, Asif Ali Zardari of the Pakistan Peoples Party and Nawaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, are negotiating with militant groups believed to be responsible for an increasing number of suicide attacks against Pakistani security forces and political figures.

The new government has signaled that in its relations with Washington, it wants to take a path more independent than the one followed by the previous government and to use military force in the tribal areas only as a last resort.