WASHINGTON, Aug 28: After a secret meeting between senior US and Pakistani generals, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen told a briefing at the Pentagon on Thursday that the military-to-military relationship between the two countries was “growing every day”.

Admiral Mullen also told the briefing he believed Pakistan’s focus in the war on terror was where it should have been.

The meeting, held on Wednesday aboard US aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln in the Indian Ocean, considered various proposals for fighting extremists in Fata.

“I came away from the meeting very encouraged that the focus is where it needs to be and that the military-to-military relationship we’re building with Pakistan is getting stronger every day,” said Admiral Mullen.

Other top US generals who attended the meeting included Gen David Petraeus, top US commander in Iraq, who will soon take charge of the US command for the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan; Gen David McKiernan, Nato’s top commander in Afghanistan; and Admiral Eric Olson, head of the US special operations command. Also present were Lt-Gen Martin Dempsey, acting commander of American forces in the Middle East, and Rear Admiral Michael LeFever, senior American military liaison to Pakistan.

The Pakistani side was represented by Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and his key commanders.

The meeting underscored the great concern both Pakistan and the US feel about the grave threat posed by a resurgent Taliban and a determined Al Qaeda to the stability and integrity of Pakistan and Afghanistan, US officials said.

The extreme secrecy surrounding the talks came amidst a series of worrying developments: continuing political turmoil in Pakistan, increasingly deadly attacks against Afghan and western targets in Afghanistan and a US top general’s complaints that the Pakistani military is not doing enough to stop militants from launching attacks into Afghanistan.

Admiral Mullen said the daylong meeting was a continuation of the dialogue both Pakistan and the US had been trying to maintain about common security challenges they faced, particularly in the border regions.

“There is a growing complexity and coordination among extremist groups there, an almost syndicate-like behaviour that has resulted in new and ever more sophisticated attacks on coalition forces,” he said.

The meeting, he said, was a chance to better understand a very complex challenge in a critical part of the world and “to try to do that through the eyes of the leadership who live and work and fight there every single day”.

Pakistani diplomatic sources in Washington, however, told Dawn that the decision to hold such a meeting was made in the US capital last month when Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani visited the White House.

During the visit, US officials repeated their complaints that Pakistan was not doing enough and that there were people in Pakistani intelligence agencies and the Frontier Corps who sympathised with the militants.

“The Americans also said that they were afraid to share intelligence with Pakistan because such data is often leaked to the militants,” said a senior Pakistani diplomat.

The prime minister, according to the sources, told the Americans that since the two militaries had dealt with each other directly in the past as well, it would be better if top generals from both sides met and sorted out their differences.

“One of the main objectives of this meeting was to rebuild trust between US and Pakistani militaries,” the diplomat said.

Admiral Mullen also emphasised similar points while talking about the meeting.

“We certainly talked about the complexity, the challenges that we have in the border area, the pressure that we believe needs to be brought there for lots of reasons, not the least of which is the effects it’s having on the fight in Afghanistan,” he said.

Pakistani diplomatic sources, however, claimed that the two sides also discussed a proposal to end unilateral US military strikes in Fata, although they did not say if the Americans agreed to stop the strikes.

Admiral Mullen said the US and Pakistan were also discussing a US proposal to train Pakistani troops for fighting militants.

“That’s a continuous, ongoing discussion. No big breakthroughs there. Still committed to, where we can and where they ask us, committed to help them and train them where they ask for the kind of assistance that they think they need,” he said.