WASHINGTON, Jan 19: The CIA chief’s claim that Baitullah Mahsud directed the attack on former prime minister Benazir Bhutto is based on “powerful” evidence the agency has collected, two major US newspapers reported on Saturday.

The New York Times also reported that the Bush administration is currently considering proposals to step up covert actions against the Al Qaeda network in Pakistan’s tribal region.

The report identified Mahsud as “a militant tribal leader in hiding” and noted that he has ties to Al Qaeda as well.

“There are powerful reasons to believe that terror networks around Baitullah Mahsud were responsible,” an American intelligence official told NYT.

Speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak publicly on the matter, the official said that “different pieces of information” had pointed toward Mahsud’s responsibility.

CIA Director Michael J. Hayden discussed the agency’s conclusion in an interview with The Washington Post published on Friday.

On Saturday, NYT did its own story on Mr Hayden’s claim, noting that independent security analysts believe the Al Qaeda network in Pakistan is increasingly made up of “home-grown militants” who have made destabilising the government a top priority.

The report also referred to recent media statements by American intelligence officials saying that Al Qaeda has steadily built a safe haven in the mountainous tribal region Pakistan, constructing a band of makeshift compounds where both Pakistani militants and foreign fighters conduct training and planning for terrorist attacks.

The newspaper pointed out that Al Qaeda’s presence in Pakistan’s tribal areas is causing “mounting frustration” among American intelligence and counterterrorism officials, many of whom believe that the United States should take more aggressive unilateral steps to dismantle terrorist networks in this region.

In a separate report, The Los Angeles Times also quoted senior CIA officials as telling its reporters in Washington that Baitullah Mahsud was behind the Bhutto assassination.

“There is certainly no reason to doubt that Mahsud was behind this,” one such official told the newspaper.

The report, however, noted that Mahsud has denied involvement in the attack on Bhutto on Dec 27 after a political rally in Rawalpindi.

The newspaper also quoted from an interview Ms Bhutto gave to Britain’s Guardian newspaper before her death, saying that though Mahsud had reportedly threatened to send suicide bombers against her if she came back to Pakistan, the real danger came from extremist elements within the government that were opposed to her return.

“I’m not worried about Mahsud, I’m worried about the threat within the government,” she said. “People like Mahsud are just pawns. It is the forces behind them that have presided over the rise of extremism and militancy in my country.”