WASHINGTON, Feb 29: The talk of direct US military action in Pakistan is harmful, says a senior American official, adding that the United States must consult Islamabad before taking any action against militants in the tribal area.

“We are not going to be able to use American military forces,” Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday evening.

“Completely understand. We want the Pakistanis to do this,” said Senator John Kerry, a prominent member of the committee.

Mr Negroponte strongly rejected suggestions by American politicians and the media that US forces should hit ‘actionable’ terrorist targets inside Pakistan with or without Islamabad’s consent.

“I think that it is harmful when people, very often unidentified sources, talk about us somehow taking this matter into our own hands and acting unilaterally,” he said. “I think all that does is get people’s backs up on the scene.”

Mr Negroponte was explaining what the US expects the new government in Islamabad to do in the war against terrorists, particularly in the tribal areas.

“Senator, Pakistan is a sovereign country. And in the last analysis, whatever they do to deal with these issues has got to be based on their government’s perception and their people’s perception of their own best self-interest,” said Mr Negroponte while responding to a question from Senator Ben Cardin, a Democrat, who wanted to know how the US would like Islamabad’s new rulers to fight the war against terror.

“I think that whatever we do should be done on a cooperative basis,” he added.

The United States, he said, would like to work with the government of Pakistan to help them in their social and economic programmes in Fata and in other parts of the country.