WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 When CIA director George Tenet came to Pakistan on an unscheduled visit on Feb 12, top on his agenda for talks in Islamabad was a plan to catch Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

US and diplomatic sources told Dawn that two dozen US officials who visited Pakistan along with Mr Tenet had detailed discussions with their Pakistani counterparts on the proposed plan called operation 'hammer and anvil.'

Later, Gen. David Barno, commander of the US forces in Afghanistan, told reporters in Washington that Pakistan had already started operations in the tribal areas to help catch Osama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders hiding there.

US and diplomatic sources in Washington say that Pakistan had agreed to deploy additional 35,000 troops in the tribal areas as part of the proposed plan. Thus, Pakistan would have deployed a total of 75,000 troops in the region, the sources said.

Although Mr Tenet came a few days after Dr A. Q. Khan's televised confession about selling nuclear secrets and technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea, he did not raise the nuclear issue in his talks with the Pakistani authorities, the sources said.

Washington, they said, was satisfied with the way Pakistan was handling the nuclear issue and did not want to embarrass it by raising the issue during Mr Tenet's visit.