WASHINGTON, Dec 26: The United States is sending its Special Forces to Pakistan early next year to train Pakistani troops and support the country’s efforts to fight terrorists, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

“These Pakistan-centric operations will mark a shift for the US military and for US-Pakistan relations,” the Post noted.

After 9/11, the United States used bases in Pakistan to launch operations into Afghanistan. But US troops moved out of the country after overthrowing the Taliban government and established their main operating base at Bagram, north of Kabul.

Since then, Islamabad has restricted American presence in Pakistan. There are no US military bases in the country and Islamabad does not allow US troops to cross its border while pursuing Taliban and Al Qaeda suspects.

The Post claimed that the alleged inability of Pakistani forces to control the borders and the adjacent tribal region forced the Pentagon to demand a greater presence in Pakistan. The country’s political instability, the report added, has heightened US concern about religious extremists there.

Pentagon sources told the Post that reaching a different agreement with Pakistan became a priority for the new head of the US Special Operations Command, Admiral Eric T. Olson. Mr Olson visited Pakistan in August, November and again this month, meeting President Pervez Musharraf, Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Gen Tariq Majid and Lt-Gen Muhammad Masood Aslam, commander of the military and paramilitary troops in the northwest.Admiral Olson also visited the headquarters of the Frontier Corps, a separate paramilitary force of border tribes that Washington wants to train for counter-insurgency operations.

The Post said that last month, the United States and Pakistan reached a new agreement, which would allow US troops to start arriving in the country early next year.

US Central Command Commander Admiral William Fallon alluded to the agreement and spoke approvingly of Pakistan’s recent counter-terrorism efforts in an interview with Voice of America last week.

“What we’ve seen in the last several months is more of a willingness to use their regular army units,” along the Afghan border, Mr Fallon said. “And this is where, I think, we can help a lot from the US in providing the kind of training and assistance and monitoring based on our experience with insurgencies recently and with the terrorist problem in Iraq and Afghanistan, I think we share a lot with them, and we’ll look forward to doing that.”