Outrage intensified in Pakistan on Thursday over the timing of a visit by two senior American envoys who landed even before foes of US-backed President Pervez Musharraf could name a new Cabinet.

Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher began meetings in Islamabad just as newly elected Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was taking his oath of office on Tuesday.

Gilani now leads Pakistan’s first autonomous civilian government in nearly a decade — one that has pledged to slash Musharraf’s powers and review his American-backed counterterrorism policies.

Washington is scrambling to build bridges with the new leaders after loyalists of its longtime ally Musharraf were trounced in parliamentary elections last month.

The envoys’ visit came amid increased US airstrikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas, where Osama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda suspects could be hiding. On Thursday, a US newspaper quoted anonymous officials in Washington as saying the stepped-up attacks are partly because of American anxiety that Pakistan’s new leaders may scale back military operations in the area.

The US wants to inflict maximum damage on militant networks before Musharraf’s powers are diminished under the new government, The Washington Post reported.

Such strikes have killed at least 25 people this month, and anger over civilian casualties has grown.

Negroponte and Boucher traveled on Wednesday to the lawless northwest border area where the airstrikes have hit, visiting US-funded border guards and as well as a mountaintop paramilitary base at the Khyber Pass, the US Embassy said.

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