Pakistan rejects US Taliban report Published duration 6 April 2011

image copyright AP image caption The US says Pakistan is avoiding direct conflict with the militants in the tribal areas

The Pakistani military has dismissed the findings of a US report that says it has no clear plans to defeat the Taliban insurgency.

The report assessing the war against militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan has been submitted by the Obama administration to the US congress.

But a senior Pakistan security official told the BBC that operations against militants have been a great success.

The official said that Pakistan should be proud of the progress it had made.

The White House report said that Pakistan still has no "clear path" to defeat militants on its soil.

But the senior official - who wished to remain anonymous - said that Pakistan's plate was full enough already.

"Instead of pushing us to do more, the other side should carry out an introspection of its own operations," he said.

"We are quite satisfied with our counter-insurgency campaign in the Swat and Malayan regions and parts of the tribal areas. We can safely say this has been a great success story."

The BBC's Shoaib Hasan in Pakistan says that the White House report has been released at a time when relations between the security establishments of the two countries have been strained.

Our correspondent says that the report is likely to raise the ire of the Pakistan military - which says it has lost more men than any other country in the fight against militancy in the region.

'Vexing'

The White House report said that in spite of "tremendous human sacrifices" made by Pakistani security forces and increased military co-operation between Pakistan and US in the last three months, the fight against militancy was making little progress.

image copyright AP image caption Pakistan claims to have lost more men than any other country in the fight against militancy

It cited the example of the this January's third operation in two years to clear insurgents from Mohmand and Bajaur tribal agencies.

The Pakistani military's efforts have been hobbled by resistance from the militants, bad weather and the need to settle internally displaced people.

"What remains vexing is the lack of any indication of 'hold' and 'build' planning or staging efforts to complement ongoing clearing operations," the White House report said.

"As such there remains no clear path to defeating the insurgency in Pakistan, despite the unprecedented and sustained deployment of over 147,000 forces."

The report said that Pakistan and Afghanistan needed to co-operate more to destroy insurgent havens on both sides of the border.