NEW YORK: Responding to stinging criticism worldwide, the White House is working to shift control of the Central Intelligence Agency’s lethal drone programme to the military, The Wall Street Journal said on Thursday citing US officials.

The move on the drone programme that redefines the widely contested campaign that targets suspected terrorists in countries like Pakistan and Yemen was corroborated by the US officials.

A United Nations investigator declared after a secret research trip to the country that the attacks violated Pakistan’s sovereignty.

Ben Emmerson, the UN special Rapporteur on Human Rights and counter-terrorism, said the Pakistani government had made clear to him that it did not consent to the strikes — a position that has been disputed by US officials.

The CIA launched a similar programme in Yemen in 2011 to counter an  Al Qaeda affiliate there. The military also has a parallel drone programme in Yemen, which was established before CIA’s.

The CIA defines the programmes as “covert action” under US law even though some details of the programme have become public.