WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama said on Friday the United States will continue to push Pakistan to do more to curb militants based in its border regions while maintaining intelligence cooperation with Islamabad.

“We've been very firm with them about needing to go after safe havens inside of Pakistan, but we've tried to also preserve the intelligence cooperation that we've obtained that's allowed us to go after al Qaeda in a very effective way,” he told a radio interview.

“There's no doubt that the relationship is not where it needs to be and we are going to keep on pressing them to recognize that it is in their interest, not just ours, to make sure that extremists are not operating within their borders,” added Obama.