NEW YORK, July 14: US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley has said that President Pervez Musharraf has failed to contain Al Qaeda, and he must regain control of areas bordering Afghanistan.

In an interview with Bloomberg Television, which aired the show on Saturday, President Bush’s adviser said that President Gen Musharraf's strategy of giving tribal leaders more autonomy had not worked the way it should have done.

He said the US regarded the problem as ‘top priority’ and was taking steps to correct it.

A classified report prepared by the US National Counter Terrorism Center earlier this month concluded that Al Qaeda was growing stronger and was in a better position to attack.

“The failure of Musharraf's tribal strategy has allowed some pooling of Taliban,” Hadley said.

“It has allowed the re-establishment of some operational training areas. It has also allowed some planning.”

The US was working with Pakistan to thwart the latest threats, Hadley said, adding that the Musharraf government was beginning to take some steps that will reassert control in those areas.

Faced with growing unrest in Congress over the perception that terrorism risks were growing, the administration has been stepping up pressure on Pakistan.

Richard Boucher, the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, told a House panel on Friday that Al Qaeda fighters had found more freedom to operate in Pakistani border areas since President Musharraf allowed tribal leaders to run the area.

Brussels-based International Crisis Group, an organisation that tries to resolve conflicts, had said in a report last year that September 2006 agreement between tribal leaders and Musharraf — called the North Waziristan accord — had helped the Taliban because it limited Pakistani army operations in the area.