Gen. Tommy Franks, speaking Monday at his Central Command headquarters, told The Associated Press that in some cases the Pakistani military should pursue such targets, as they already have with some success.
"Or, on the other hand, we could contact them and say all right, we are observing people and we are going to follow them into Pakistan. I think arrangements are in place to be able to do either of those," the four-star Army general said in an hourlong interview in his office.
An undisclosed number of U.S. special forces soldiers are in Pakistan to coordinate with the army there, he said.
In Islamabad, government spokesman Mohammed Azia Khan said Pakistan needs no help pursuing al-Qaida members.
"We have made all arrangements that those who sneak into Pakistan are arrested. Pakistani forces are vigilant," Khan told reporters. "They are guarding the border and I think the success that they have had in apprehending the people has been applauded by the international community."
Franks credited Pakistan with having gone to extraordinary lengths to support the U.S. campaign to hunt down and capture or kill Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, even as tensions with India have grown. At one time the Pakistani army had 50,000 troops on the Afghan border to intercept fleeing Taliban or al-Qaida fighters, Franks said. He did not say how many remain.
On the 93rd day of the U.S.-led military campaign, Franks spoke confidently of eventually finding bin Laden, his chief al-Qaida collaborators and top officials of the Taliban militia that supported the terrorists. He said the interim Afghan government, headed by Hamid Karzai, shares U.S. anti-terrorist aims and has been fully cooperative since taking office in December.
Franks said he speaks regularly to Karzai and intends to visit him in Afghanistan within a few weeks.
As has been his custom, Franks declined to discuss specifics about the future direction of the war in Afghanistan, except to say it would continue as long as it takes to find bin Laden, the No. 1 suspect in the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and other key targets. He did not rule out putting more U.S. ground troops into Afghanistan.