The United States has stepped up unilateral strikes against al-Qaida members in Pakistan's tribal areas, the Washington Post reported Thursday.

The action has partly resulted from anxieties that Pakistan's new leaders will insist on scaling back military operations in that country, the paper quoted US officials as saying.

Washington is worried that pro-Western Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who has generally supported the US strikes, will almost certainly have reduced powers in the months ahead, and so it wants to inflict as much damage as it can on al-Qaida's network now, according to the officials.

Over the past two months, US-controlled Predator aircraft have struck at least three sites used by al-Qaida operatives in Pakistan.

The moves followed a tacit understanding with Musharraf and his army chief Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani, allowing US strikes on foreign fighters operating in Pakistan, but not against the Pakistani Taliban, the officials said.

About 45 Arab, Afghan and other foreign fighters have been killed in the attacks, all near the Afghan border, US and Pakistani officials said.

The goal of the strikes was partly to collect loose information on senior al-Qaida leaders, including Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants, by forcing them to move in ways that US intelligence analysts can detect.

(Xinhua News Agency March 28, 2008)