WASHINGTON, Feb 28: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Peter Pace have indicated that the US will not launch direct military strikes at suspected Al Qaeda targets inside Pakistan’s tribal region.

The two officials told the Senate Appropriations Committee that the US sought no direct role in Pakistan’s northern region where US officials had noticed a rise in Al Qaeda activity.

The question of direct US military action inside the Pakistani territory was raised by Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, during a hearing on supplemental budget request for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The senator asked Ms Rice if the Bush administration had considered sending troops inside Pakistan for eliminating Al Qaeda leadership.

“I'm rather dubious that the surge of American forces into the federally-administered (tribal) areas of Pakistan, those tough mountains of places like North Waziristan, would have been a workable strategy,” said Ms Rice. Gen Pace who, Ms Rice said, should also respond to this question, stated: “Sir, one of the most difficult problems we face in this war is how do you attack an enemy inside of a country with which you're not at war?”

Senator Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican and a prominent supporter of the India caucus on Capitol Hill, asked the secretary if Vice-President Dick Cheney had sought assurances from Pakistan to stop cross-border attacks into Afghanistan when he visited Islamabad on Monday.

Secretary Rice said she had not yet heard from Mr Cheney what he discussed with President Musharraf in Islamabad.

“But I do think that we need to remember that the Pakistanis have a very strong interest also in not having extremism breed in that area. After all, Al Qaeda's had a couple of attempts on Musharraf's life itself. And so I'm certain that the cooperation remains good.”

She urged the senator to remember this was a “very, very tough” area but said the Bush administration also had “some concerns” about the Waziristan accord that the senator referred to in his question, “and about how it is working.”

“The particular agreement that was signed between the Pakistani government and some of the tribal leaders I think there have been some problems with,” she said. “And we've been working our way through ways to cooperate with the Pakistanis to make sure that that doesn't become a terrorist safe haven.”

Despite its reservations about the Waziristan accord, Ms Rice said the US administration believed that “we have the commitment of the Pakistanis to fight these extremists, because they threaten Pakistan as well.”