WASHINGTON, Jan 10: US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said that Pakistan is conducting new military operations in the tribal belt along its border with Afghanistan , and hoped that the coalition would be able to deal with the threat posed by "kind of rogue presence."

"I am pleased that President (Pervez) Musharraf has responded to our overtures and is conducting new military operations in that region. And he understands that this kind of rogue presence is not in his interest and is dangerous to Pakistan, just as it is dangerous to Afghanistan," Mr Powell said in a CBS Radio programme.

The Secretary of State said he was confident that the Afghans and the United States and other coalition partners working with the Pakistani leadership would be able to deal with this threat.

He said it was an international border and there were certain sensitivities with it. "It is also a very wild area, a very rugged terrain, and it's not the easiest thing in the world to send Americans across into tribal areas where everybody has known everybody in the area for the last thousand years.

"So what we are doing is cooperating with the Pakistanis, making it clear to the Pakistanis that we want them to do everything they can to bring that area under control," he added.

Mr Powell said the US wanted to work hard to consolidate its victories in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"We have seen considerable progress in Afghanistan with the constitutional Loya Jirga, and we believe we are on track now to put in place a transitional government in Iraq by the middle of the summer."

At the same time, he pointed out, the coalition had to work hard on security - "to make sure that we get these old remnants of the regime swept up."

"But there are other parts of the agenda that I would like to touch on, such as the Millennium Challenge Account, the most significant increase in foreign assistance and development aid since the Marshall Plan of post-World War II fame, and going after HIV/AIDS around the world. The president feels so strongly that this is a devastating disease, a devastating affliction upon the world, that all of us have to come together to work on it.

"That's just a few of the highlights. The Middle East peace process, of course, is something we have to work on."-APP