WASHINGTON, Sept 13: Pakistan has been an unreliable ally of the United States in the war against Al Qaeda and other extremist organisations, US Vice President Joe Biden told CNN in an interview aired on Monday night.

Mr Biden, who spoke to CNN on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, said Pakistan had failed “on occasion” when forced to choose between the US and Al Qaeda.

The price of Pakistan’s choices has been the “loss of life of American soldiers in Afghanistan”, he said. But he also admitted that Islamabad had “been very helpful in other times”.

This, however, was “not sufficient. They have to get better. We need a relationship that is born out of mutual interest. And it’s in their interest that they be more cooperative with us.”

The US, he said, was “demanding” such a relationship.

Mr Biden said that despite troubles in Pakistan and elsewhere, the US was “getting close” to bringing about an end to organised, legitimised terrorist activities.

“We have done great damage to... Al Qaeda,” he said. “Satellite organisations” have emerged in Somalia and elsewhere, he said, but “they are less coordinated” and “less capable”.

“And we're relentless in pursuing them,” he added.

As a result, Americans are safer today than they were a decade ago, Mr Biden asserted.