WASHIINGTON, Jan 13: Pakistan needs to do more to prevent the Taliban and Al Qaeda from using the tribal areas as a safe haven, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview.

But in the same interview to BBC Arabic, recorded before she left for the Middle East on Friday, Ms Rice also praised Pakistan as `an excellent ally’ in the `war against terror’.

The top American diplomat indulged in this balancing act while commenting on a statement by the outgoing Secretary for Homeland Security, John Negroponte, who on Thursday named Pakistan as the centre of an Al Qaeda web that radiated out to the Middle East, North Africa and Europe.

Ms Negroponte will soon join the State Department as Ms Rice’s deputy.

In a testimony to a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Mr Negroponte wrote, without naming Osama bin Laden or Ayman Al Zawahiri, that Al Qaeda leaders were holed up in a secure hideout in Pakistan.

Ms Rice indicated that the United States had taken up this issue with Islamabad and expects it to uproot Taliban setups established in the tribal zone.

“And so what the Pakistanis need to do, and I think are trying to do, is to make certain that that area cannot be a safe haven for Al Qaeda or for the Taliban,” she said.

“And I do think they’ve made some progress, but obviously, we’d like to see more progress made,” she added.

The allegation that Pakistan was not doing enough to uproot Taliban sanctuaries inside its territory has soured relations between Islamabad and Kabul.