WASHINGTON - THE administration of President George W. Bush is considering granting the Pentagon and CIA new authority to conduct covert operations in the tribal areas of Pakistan where Al-Qaeda is showing new strength, The New York Times reported on its website late Saturday.

Citing unnamed senior administration officials, the newspaper said the plan calls for giving Central Intelligence Agency agents broader powers to strike selected targets inside the country, in some cases using intelligence provided by Pakistani sources.

Up to now, most counterterrorism operations in Pakistan have been conducted by CIA operatives based in Afghanistan, the report said.

The United States now has about 50 soldiers in Pakistan, the report said.

Hundreds of Al-Qaeda and Taleban insurgents took shelter in the rugged northwestern region of Pakistan after US-led forces overthrew the hardline Taleban regime in Afghanistan in the wake of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

It is believed Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden might be hiding in the area under the protection of sympathetic Islamic leaders.

The plan was discussed by Vice President Richard Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and top White House national security aides on Friday when they met at the White House to reassess US strategy in the wake of last month's assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, The Times said.

The US government has not formally presented its proposals to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf or the new army commander, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the report noted.

But several of the participants of Friday's meeting argued that the threat to the Musharraf government was now so grave that both he and Pakistani generals were likely to give the United States more latitude for action, the paper pointed out. -- AFP