WASHINGTON: U.S. officials are quietly planning to expand their presence in and around the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan by creating special coordination centers on the Afghan side of the border where U.S., Afghan and Pakistani officials can share intelligence about Qaeda and Taliban militants, according to State Department and Pentagon officials.

The Bush administration is also seeking to expand its influence in the tribal areas through a new economic support initiative that would initially focus on school and road construction projects. Officials recently asked Congress for $453 million to initiate the effort - a larger request for economic support funds than for any country except Afghanistan.

The expansion of U.S. efforts in the tribal areas - made possible, in part, by rising Pakistani anger over a string of suicide attacks by militants from the region - also includes the deployment of about 30 U.S. counterinsurgency trainers to teach an elite Pakistani force to fight Al Qaeda and indigenous extremists.

President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan has long refused to allow U.S. soldiers to operate openly in the semiautonomous tribal areas where Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding. But in recent months, as unrest in Pakistan grew, and he became increasingly unpopular, Musharraf began quietly allowing more American "eyes and ears" into the region, Pakistani officials said in interviews.

U.S. officials said they hoped Musharraf's concessions would evolve into a greater role for U.S. forces in the region over time.

"In order to get a window on what's happening on the ground, U.S. forces need to be more present, whether they are physically there or virtually there, monitoring," said Daniel Markey, who was a Pakistan specialist on the State Department's policy planning staff from 2003 until his retirement last year.

To get a better picture of the complex insurgency that has grown in the tribal areas over the past five years, U.S. officials are constructing two new coordination centers on the Afghan side of a border at Torkham, near the Khyber Pass, and at a second position north of Torkham. Four more posts are under consideration, according to a senior Defense Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official is not authorized to be quoted in the news media.

According to the plans, the official said, about 15 Afghan, Pakistani and U.S. officials will meet daily at each center to share intelligence about militant activities on both sides of the porous, mountainous border, which extends about 2,510 kilometers, or 1,560 miles, between Afghanistan and Pakistan's tribal areas.

"The purpose of the centers is to share intelligence, ensure that" all parties "have a common operational picture of the area, coordinate operations that might be occurring on both sides of the border at the same time, and" settle conflicts "when necessary," said the Defense Department official.

He said there was no intention at this time to use the centers to conduct joint operations in the tribal areas.

But a State Department official who has been briefed on the plans said the United States hoped the initiatives would spread to dozens of border posts and eventually evolve into a form of military cooperation.

"We'll start with intelligence sharing," said the State Department official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to discuss the matter with reporters. "If we could turn that into joint operations, all the better, but we have to walk before we can fly."

The idea for the centers grew out of a commission made up of intelligence and military officers from Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States who have held periodic meetings since 2003 in various locations in the three countries to discuss security and terrorism.

In the past, those meetings, which took place every six weeks, were marked by tension and mistrust, as Afghan and U.S. officials feared their Pakistani counterparts were giving safe haven to militants.

But a rash of suicide attacks against government targets inside Pakistan last summer pushed military leaders in Islamabad to view the extremists in the tribal areas as their enemies, not just the enemies of Americans and Afghans, and put all three countries on the same side, U.S. officials said.

In August, a special meeting between U.S. officials, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, tribal leaders and Musharraf paved the way for better cooperation.

The Bush administration has requested $826 million in funds for Pakistan for 2009, more than half of which would be spent on development assistance, mostly in the tribal areas. About $300 million would be spent on reimbursing the Pakistani military for the costs of its operations in the tribal areas.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/26/asia/intel.php