US 'lacks Pakistan terror policy'

The report says that the border area is a 'terrorist' stronghold

A US report says that terrorists are still operating freely along the Pakistani border with Afghanistan.

It says that there is "no comprehensive plan" to deal with the threat, even though Pakistan has received $10.5bn in military and economic aid from the US.

The report was released by a government watchdog, the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

US officials suspect that al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden and Taleban head Mullah Omar are in the border areas.

The GAO is the audit and investigative arm of the US Congress.

Its report said that more than six years after the 11 September 2001 attacks, the US still does not have a coherent plan to destroy the threat from Islamist militants.

It said that both the US and Pakistan agree that "al-Qaeda had regenerated its ability to attack the United States and had succeeded in establishing a safe haven in Pakistan's militant hotbed of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata)".

The report argued that "a coherent plan" was necessary to make the US government more focused on meeting national security goals.

"We believe that such a plan would help to ensure coordination, integration, and implementation of US efforts to close the terrorist safe haven in the Fata," it said.

Some members of the Democratic party have described the findings in the report as "appalling" because they have highlighted the failure of the US to coordinate anti-terror efforts by federal agencies.