WASHINGTON, March 21: The visit of Secretary of State Colin Powell to South Asia, designation of Pakistan as a major non-Nato ally and the operation in Wana found prominent time and space in the US media on Saturday.

"The story about Dr Zawahiri overwhelmed coverage of the nuclear issue," states the New York Times in an editorial titled: 'Pakistan changes the subject.' It said President Gen Pervez Musharraf "would deserve praise" if Pakistan troops captured Al Qaeda's No.2 leader, Ayman Al Zawahiri, who is believed to be surrounded near the Afghan border.

But, the daily says, it should be nothing "short of capturing Osama bin Laden himself to demonstrate how valuable Pakistan's cooperation can be." The Christian Science Monitor in a news report from Wana on Sunday said: "The US and Pakistan operation represents an expanding strategic alliance."

It says: "As the world awaits to see if Pakistani troops indeed capture or kill Ayman Al Zawahiri in a remote corner of the Afghan-Pakistan border, the broader developments should not go overlooked.

"Whether or not Zawahiri is captured, the tribal lands between Pakistan and Afghanistan are no longer a secure redoubt from which terrorists can plan, train, or simply hide.

By sending in more than 7,000 elite troops, and coordinating this incursion with US military forces across the border in Afghanistan, Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has signalled to autonomous tribal leaders his intent to change tribal customs that date to Alexander the Great," the report adds. The State Department deputy spokesman on Friday said it was up to the Pakistan authorities to talk about the Wana operation. -APP