The attacks also re-enforce the view that the Taliban is not Pakistan's problem but an American one that has spilled over the border from Afghanistan, she said.

While some Pakistanis support America's anti-terror objectives, the Pakistani government is viewed as having no choice but to acquiesce to US demands, said Kamran Bokhari, director of Middle East analysis at Stratfor, a global intelligence company.

This opinion is widespread – from poor and uneducated classes to some government officials – and many believe that Pakistan should stand up to the US, he said.

Many anti-US conspiracy theories are also circulating, the most common being that the US. and some of its allies are trying to destabilize Pakistan – the Muslim world's only nuclear power, he said.

For their part, US officials have also in the past harbored mistrust for Pakistan, questioning its leaders' commitment toward fighting terror groups and accusing its military of only fighting terrorists who target Pakistan.

The Mumbai attacks last year have also renewed suspicions that Pakistan's military and intelligence agency, the ISI, might not fully support Washington's anti-terror goals. Pakistan counters that it can't take on every terrorist.

While Pakistan ranks among the largest recipients of US military aid –around a quarter of its four-billion-dollar budget – simply improving military capacity will solve nothing, Rehman said.

"Throwing money at the problem is not going to help," she said.

Indeed, a recent report by the Center for American Progress said Washington should take a multi-pronged approach including "strengthening governance and rule of law, creating economic opportunities, and exploring political negotiations."

Rehman said it is also essential that Pakistan's youth be exposed more to the US via student and cultural exchanges, in order to promote mutual understanding among future leaders.

While there were once many such programs for South Asian students, most stopped after 9/11, she said.

Building trust is also difficult when the Taliban provides services in areas where the government and courts are largely absent.

Indeed, the terror group has dealt with land reform in some places by instituting Sharia law – an Islamic legal system based on the Koran – that has opened a window for public support, said Joshua White, research fellow at the Institute for Global Engagement, a Washington think tank.

Aside from talks in Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently made efforts to bridge the trust gap when she remarked that the United States bears partial responsibility for Taliban incursions into Pakistan.

"Let's remember here ... the people we are fighting today we funded them 20 years ago," she said.

That played well in Pakistan, although Clinton has also made other statements that Pakistan has capitulated to terrorists, Bokhari noted.

Clinton has also spoken of a trade pact between the two countries to increase commerce over the borders, which many experts believe is a step in the right direction.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates agreed that military operations should be subordinate to measures promoting economic growth and participation in government.

Efforts should "address the grievances that often lie at the heart of insurgencies and among the discontented from which the terrorists recruit," he said in a speech last year.

The Obama administration on Tuesday lobbied for recently introduced legislation that triples non-military aid to Pakistan.

The Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act of 2009 authorizes more than seven billion dollars in aid to boost economic development over the next five years, and another seven billion over the following five years.

After receiving the nice gesture and possibly huge aid from its US ally, Pakistan probably needs to do more to fight terrorists within its borders, Rehmen said.

"But it does not need to be told that constantly by the United States," she said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 15, 2009)