Pakistan faces 'existential threat' from militants

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Islamist safe havens in western Pakistan are threatening the existence of Pakistan's civilian government through increased attacks, including last weekend's Marriott hotel bombing, U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Tuesday.

"The nature of the threat that they face, beginning with the assassination of the current president's wife and now most recently the attack on the Marriott hotel, makes very clear to the Pakistani government that they face an existential threat in the western part of their country," Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The remote mountainous region believed to be a safe harbour for al Qaeda and other groups also poses the greatest threat of terrorism against the United States, Gates said in hearing testimony that underscored the dangers posed by the tribal lands along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.

U.S. officials have increasingly looked to Pakistan as a vital part of their strategy against an intensifying insurgency in eastern Afghanistan, which the Americans say is being fuelled by militant strongholds in Pakistan.

Top U.S. defence and diplomatic officials recently began reviewing American strategy in the region and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has specifically called for a new military strategy that encompasses both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

But thousands of U.S. troops requested by commanders in Afghanistan are unlikely to be available until next spring at the earliest, Gates said. In the meantime, the United States has stepped up its campaign against militants in Pakistan with a series of missile strikes from predator drones and a U.S. commando raid in South Waziristan.

Gates said Islamabad's government cannot publicly support U.S. military action against militant targets on Pakistani soil and warned that any deterioration in U.S. relations with the nuclear-armed nation would hurt American interests.

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"During this time of political turmoil in Pakistan, it is especially crucial that we maintain a strong and positive relationship with the government, since any deterioration would be a setback for both Pakistan and Afghanistan," the U.S. defence chief said. "The war on terror started in this region. It must end there."

A suicide truck bomb exploded outside Islamabad's Marriott hotel on Saturday, killing at least 53 people and gutting the hotel. A previously unknown Islamist group claimed responsibility for the bombing, which follows the December assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

The bombing, which has led to speculation that Pakistani leaders may have been the targets, followed an assassination attempt against Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.

The militant-driven rise in Afghan violence prompted President George W. Bush to send to Afghanistan a U.S. Marine force of nearly 2,000 troops in November and an Army brigade of around 4,000 troops in January.

U.S. Army Gen. David McKiernan, the head of the NATO-led force in Afghanistan, later said he needed three more brigades plus support units -- about 15,000 troops -- in addition to the deployments announced by Bush.

But Gates said a new deployment of that scale would be unlikely this year due to U.S. troop commitments in Iraq, where about 150,000 U.S. forces remain. "My view is that those forces will become available probably during the spring and summer of 2009," he said.

The United States now has about 33,000 troops in Afghanistan, including 13,000 under NATO command.

But Gates suggested a planned expansion of the Afghan army would ultimately provide better security than a large Western force in "a country that has never been notoriously hospitable to foreigners regardless of why they're there."

"We need to think about how heavy a military footprint the United States ought to have in Afghanistan," he added, noting the need for greater economic and social development in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

(Additional reporting by Ross Colvin; Editing by Bill Trott).