Report: Secret US military plan for Pakistan on hold

Top Bush administration officials drafted a secret plan late last year to make it easier for US Special Operations forces to operate inside Pakistan's tribal areas, but Washington turf battles and the diversion of resources to Iraq have held up the effort, the New York Times reported on Monday.

The Times quoted a senior Defense Department official as saying there was "mounting frustration" in the Pentagon at the continued delay in deployment of special operations teams into Pakistan's mountainous and lawless western tribal regions, where senior al-Qaeda operatives are thought to be hiding. (Reuters)