Citing unnamed US officials, the newspaper said senior officials in the administration of President George W. Bush fear that attacking Pakistani radicals may anger Pakistan's new government.

Pakistani military operations in the tribal areas have slowed recently to avoid upsetting the negotiations between the country's government and the militants.

US intelligence officials believe the threat emanating from Pakistan's tribal areas is growing, and that Pakistani Islamist groups there are becoming an ally of Al-Qaeda in plotting attacks against Americans and their allies in Afghanistan, the report said.

In light of this, the US military's proposals included limited cross-border artillery strikes into Pakistan, missile attacks by Predator aircraft or raids by small teams of CIA paramilitary forces or Special Operations forces, the paper said.

The list of potential targets, which has been discussed with US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson, included a group commanded by Sirajuddin Haqqani, son of the legendary militant leader Jalaluddin Haqqani, as well as the network led by Baitullah Mehsud that is believed to have been behind Benazir Bhutto's assassination, The Times said.

But the question of attacking Pakistani militants was especially delicate because some militant leaders were believed to still be on the payroll of Pakistan's intelligence service, the report pointed out.

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