US President Barack Obama has warned that al-Qaeda is planning more attacks on the US from safe havens in Pakistan.
He also urged Islamabad to be a stronger partner in the fight against militants.
‘Al-Qaeda and its allies, the terrorists who planned and supported the 9/11 attacks, are in Pakistan and Afghanistan,’ Mr Obama said.
‘Multiple intelligence estimates have warned that al-Qaeda is actively planning attacks on the US homeland from its safe-haven in Pakistan’, he said.
As he rolled out a new US strategy for Afghanistan, the president said the country's future ‘is inextricably linked to the future of its neighbour, Pakistan'.
Afghan strategy targets al-Qaeda
Mr Obama said the US military in Afghanistan would shift the emphasis of its mission to training and expanding the Afghan army so that it could take the lead in securing the country and allow US troops to return home.
The new strategy comes at a time when violence in Afghanistan at its highest level since US-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001 for sheltering al Qaeda leaders behind the 11 September attacks.
‘The situation is increasingly perilous,’ Mr Obama said in a sombre speech in which he sought to explain to Americans why he was boosting US military and civilian involvement in the seven-year-old war and expanding its focus to include Pakistan.
‘The world cannot afford the price that will come due if Afghanistan slides back into chaos or al Qaeda operates unchecked.’
He said his new war strategy for Afghanistan had one ‘clear and focused goal’ - to disrupt, dismantle and eventually defeat al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Since the 11 September 2001 attacks al-Qaeda and its allies had moved into the remote Pakistani frontier areas, President Obama said.
‘This almost certainly includes al-Qaeda's leadership: Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri.
‘Pakistan's government must be a stronger partner in destroying these safe-havens, and we must isolate al-Qaeda from the Pakistani people,’ he demanded.
The plan puts Presidents Obama's stamp on the Afghan war that he inherited from his predecessor George W Bush.
Mr Obama, a Democrat, succeeded Mr Bush, a Republican, on 20 January.
Analysts say the success or failure of his Afghan policy will likely help define his presidency, although it is handling of the US economic crisis that will be the centrepiece of his term.
As part of the new emphasis on training, 4,000 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division are to be deployed in southern Afghanistan to embed and partner with the Afghan army by the autumn.
They will be in addition to the 17,000 combat troops Mr Obama has already ordered sent to the country.
