NEW YORK, Sept 23: “Political turmoil and a spate of brazen attacks by Taliban fighters are forcing Pakistan’s president to scale back his government’s pursuit of Al Qaeda,” the Los Angeles Times said on Sunday quoting US intelligence officials.

The newspaper observed in a report that “the development threatens a pillar of US counter-terrorism strategy, which has depended on Pakistan to play a lead role in keeping Al Qaeda under pressure to reduce its ability to coordinate strikes”.

“President Pervez Musharraf, facing a potentially fateful election next month and confronting calls to yield power after years of autocratic rule, appears too vulnerable to pursue aggressive counter-terrorism operations at the behest of the United States” the intelligence officials told the paper.

At the same time, the Pakistani military has suffered a series of embarrassing setbacks at the hands of militants in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan where Osama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda figures are believed to be hiding, the paper says.

“Over the years, Musharraf’s commitment to rooting out elements of Al Qaeda and the Taliban has sometimes been questioned.” It noted: “Last fall, the president struck a peace agreement with tribal leaders in North and South Waziristan, scaling back military operations in return for a pledge that the tribes would rein in foreign fighters.”

Instead, American intelligence officials told the newspaper, the deal took pressure off Al Qaeda at a critical time, enabling it to regroup and re-establish ties with terrorist affiliates in other parts of the world.

“In the next few days, we’re probably going to see a withdrawal of forces that the Pakistanis put there,” one intelligence official said, adding that the move could solidify a “safe haven, where the (Al Qaeda) leadership is secure, operational planners can do their business, and foreigners can come in and be trained and redeploy to the West.”