WASHINGTON, Jan 19: Pakistan’s cooperation in the war against terror has resulted in a 40 per cent decrease in terrorist activities in Afghanistan, says a top US general.

Adm. William Fallon, who heads the US Central Command which covers the region that includes Pakistan, that cooperation among the US, Pakistani and Afghan forces along the Pakistan-Afghan border has resulted in “significant success” in the fight against terrorism.

“For example, the last two months, the level of violent activity in the eastern provinces (of Afghanistan) is down about 40 per cent.”

The admiral said that while cooperation among these militaries had helped achieve this success, developments within Pakistan also contributed to it.

“There are a lot of things going on within Pakistan,” the Centcom commander told the Public Broadcasting Services network.

“The Pakistan military response to the instabilities that resulted in the Red Mosque incident, certainly these tragic bombings -- the most recent one that took the life of Ms Bhutto -- have caused the Pakistan government and military to realize that they have a significant threat.”

Admiral Fallon acknowledged that the Pakistanis have now moved their regular military forces into the tribal area in an attempt to put pressure on the insurgents.“The insurgents now are faced with the challenge of not only having us in the west on the Afghan side, working with the Afghan security forces, but now they’ve got the Pakistan military squeezing them on the right,” he said.

“And so the net result of that has been a decrease in activity in Afghanistan, and that’s good.”

The United States, he said, wants to cooperate very closely with the Pakistan military to try to help them to be even more successful, to build their capacity to deal with this, because it is a threat that challenges stability in both Pakistan as well as Afghanistan.

Another US general told a briefing in Washington that after Ms Bhutto’s assassination, the US Defence Department is assessing what assistance to give to Pakistan.

Critics say the increasingly volatile situation on the ground in Pakistan is largely due to crumbling political support of President Pervez Musharraf and recently elevated extremist activity in the country’s tribal areas near the Afghanistan border, the Pentagon reported.

“The character of the fight in Pakistan has changed to some extent, and it is more focused inward, and we’re watching that very carefully,” said Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Gen. James Cartwright.

“Is it a threat that the Pakistanis are ready to handle? Do they need help? Do they need training help? Do they need other types of help? That’s what we’re trying to assess right now.”

“We’re assessing what value we could have, or any other ally could have, in contributing to their security,” Gen. Cartwright said.

“But they’re a sovereign nation. They have to make those decisions. And we will stand by and be available, particularly for those things that we might do in the way of training or in helping them in shortfalls.”

US officials say American military assistance to the region is under consideration by the defence department but an official request from President Musharraf has not been made.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates told a briefing at the Pentagon earlier this week that US authorities are trying to understand the ground realities in Pakistan’s tribal region.