President George W. Bush secretly approved orders in July allowing US special forces to carry out ground assaults inside Pakistan without approval from the Pakistan government, the New York Timesreported today.
The disclosure is certain to further anger Pakistan's military, whose Army chief said on Wednesday that Pakistan would not allow foreign troops to conduct operations on its soil, after a cross-border incursion last week by US commandos.
The new orders reflect concern about safe havens for al-Qaeda and the Taliban inside Pakistan and an American view Pakistan lacks the will and ability to combat militants, the paper said.
"The situation in the tribal areas is not tolerable," said a senior US official who spoke to the newspaper on condition of anonymity. "We have to be more assertive. Orders have been issued."
The newspaper said the orders also reflected a belief some US operations had been compromised once Pakistanis were advised of the details.
Helicopter-borne US commandos carried out a ground assault in Pakistan's South Waziristan, a sanctuary for al-Qaeda operatives, last week, the first known incursion into Pakistan by US troops since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. The raid killed 20 people, including women and children.
Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani Kayani said in a statement on Wednesday: "The sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country will be defended at all cost and no external force is allowed to conduct operations ... inside Pakistan."
"There is no question of any agreement or understanding with the coalition forces whereby they are allowed to conduct operations on our side of the border," he said.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is to hold talks with Mr Bush later today on a new strategy to deal with the lawless Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
"What's happening on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan is something where we need to develop a new strategy," he told a news conference.
"The insecurity on the border and the porousness of the border is a problem for both countries," he said.
He said he would talk to Mr Bush about the new strategy in a video conference later today and would also discuss it with Pakistan's new civilian president, Asif Ali Zardari, who he said was scheduled to visit London "in the next few days".