WASHINGTON, Nov 27: As the military campaign in Afghanistan moved from “cities to caves” in what defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld described as a dangerous new phase, cooperation from Pakistan was described on Tuesday as “very, very good”.

The head of the US central command, Gen Tommy Franks, told a joint news conference with Mr Rumsfeld at Tampa, Florida, the central command’s headquarters, that Pakistan was helping to keep passes leading into Afghanistan open to enable humanitarian aid to be sent to Afghans and, secondly, it was aiding in providing interdiction support in places from where Al Qaeda leadership could try to flee Afghanistan. He described the number of passes as around 170.

The general said it would be unwise to say that some Al Qaeda men might not be able to escape, but “they will find no place to hide and we will find them”.

Gen Franks is in overall command of the Afghanistan operation, and was speaking a day after a marine force landed near Kandahar to establish a forward operating base. He said this was not occupation of Afghan territory, but merely establishing a base that would be dismantled once the objectives of the campaign were achieved.

A particular watch was being kept, Gen Franks said, in the areas around Kandahar and in the region from Jalalabad down to Tora Bora in the search for Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda leadership.

In a development that could spell more trouble for efforts at government-forming, Northern Alliance has said it is moving south from Herat toward Kandahar while elements of Afghanistan’s Pakhtoon tribes have threatened to move on Kandahar if Taliban leader Mohammed Omar does not relinquish control of the city.

AFP ADDS: The Pentagon would not confirm on Tuesday an announcement by the Northern Alliance that it had put down a rebellion of foreign Taliban fighters at a prison in Qala-i-Jangi in northern Afghanistan.