The Times has been critical of the role of the Pakistan Army and intelligence services, particularly the ISI, that have been shown to be “a law unto itself”.

It has underlined the need for the US to work with new government in Islamabad to establish spending priorities so as “to regain control” over the Pakistan military.

The Pakistan Army has “too often been a law unto itself and intelligence services seem far more loyal to the extremists than their own government”, The Times said in an editorial “The Talibans Rising Tide”.

The new government, it said, had deluded themselves that they can negotiate a separate peace with the Taliban leaders.

However, it warned against sending American troops into Pakistans restive tribal border regions to clean out Taliban and al-Qaeda forces.

The Bush administration has showered Pakistan with more than $ 7 billion in military aid over the past six years, with “little of it actually being used for counterinsurgency purposes”. Over the same period, Washington has provided less than $3 billion in all other forms of assistance.

More than a thousand Pakistanis have been killed in terrorist attacks in the past year, mostly in the country’s border areas where radical Islamic fighters are seeking to impose medieval social laws, including the imposition of the Sharia.