WASHINGTON, Aug 15: The US State Department has said that Washington will not hesitate to hit ‘high-value’ Al Qaeda targets inside another country, but will do so in a way that it does not harm America’s relations with that state.

“If there is actionable intelligence on high-value targets, wherever they may be, we are going to do everything that we can to act on that information,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told a briefing in Washington.

“And we are confident that we will be able to do that in such a way that we don’t harm our relations with any states that may be in question, whether that’s Pakistan, Afghanistan or some other state,” he said.

The debate over a possible US action against suspected Al Qaeda targets started late last month when a US intelligence report claimed that Al Qaeda had established a safe haven in Pakistan’s tribal territory.

Later, several senior US officials said that if they had ‘actionable’ intelligence about suspected Al Qaeda hideouts inside Pakistan, they would launch direct military strikes at those targets.

The statements caused a bitter reaction in Islamabad where both government and opposition leaders said that such an attack would violate Pakistan’s territorial integrity.

Since then, Washington has softened its stance, with President Bush declaring earlier this week that the US respects Pakistan’s sovereignty but expects Islamabad to take immediate action against terrorist hideouts.