WASHINGTON US President Barack Obama has offered Pakistan an expanded strategic partnership, including additional military and economic cooperation, but with a blunt warning that its use of insurgent groups to pursue policy goals cannot continue, according to a leading American newspaper. The offer, including an effort to help reduce tensions between Pakistan and India, was contained in a two-page letter delivered to President Asif Ali Zardari this month by Obama national security adviser James Jones, The Washington Post reported on Monday. It was accompanied by assurances from Jones that the US would increase its military and civilian efforts in Afghanistan and that it plans no early withdrawal, the newspaper said. Obamas speech Tuesday night at the US Military Academy at West Point, NY, would address primarily the Afghanistan aspects of the strategy, The Post said. But despite the public and political attention focused on the number of new troops, Pakistan has been the hot core of the months-long strategy review, the dispatch said. The long-term consequences of failure there, the review concluded, far outweigh those in Afghanistan. We cant succeed without Pakistan, a senior administration official involved in the White House review was quoted as saying by the Post. You have to differentiate between public statements and reality. There is nobody who is under any illusions about this. This official and others spoke about the closely held details of the new strategy on the condition of anonymity, the dispatch said. They emphasized that without changing the nature of US-Pakistan relations in a new direction, youre not going to win in Afghanistan, as one put it. And if you dont win in Afghanistan, then Pakistan will automatically be imperilled, and that will make Afghanistan look like childs play. Proffered US carrots, outlined during Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clintons October visit to Islamabad, centre on a far more comprehensive and long-term bilateral relationship, according to the Post. It would feature enhanced development and trade assistance; improved intelligence collaboration and a more secure and upgraded military equipment pipeline; more public praise and less public criticism of Pakistan; and an initiative to build greater regional cooperation among Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. Obama called for closer collaboration against all extremist groups, and his letter named five: al-Qaeda, the Afghan Taliban, the Haqqani network, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and the Pakistani Taliban organization known as Tehrik-e-Taliban. Using vague diplomatic language, he said that ambiguity in Pakistans relationship with any of them could no longer be ignored, the dispatch said. Jones was more precise in conversations with top Pakistani government and military leaders, US and foreign officials said, stating that certain things have to happen in Pakistan to ensure Afghanistans security. If Pakistan cannot deliver, he warned, the United States may be impelled to use any means at its disposal to rout insurgents based along Pakistans western and southern borders with Afghanistan, according to the Post. Current US policy includes the use of missiles fired from unmanned drones on insurgent locations limited to roughly 50 miles inside the western border; training in two military camps for the Pakistani Frontier Corps; and intelligence exchanges. It prohibits kinetic, or active, operations by US ground forces inside Pakistan. While praising Pakistani military offensives against groups that pose a domestic threat primarily the alliance of groups known as Tehrik-e-Taliban, in the Swat Valley and South Waziristan Jones made it clear that the administration expects more. The rollout of the new strategy is being coordinated with principal US allies, including Britain, whose prime minister, Gordon Brown, said Sunday, People are going to ask why, eight years after 2001, Osama bin Laden has never been near to being caught. Al-Qaeda has a base in Pakistan, Brown claimed in an interview with Sky News. That base is still there they are able to recruit from abroad. The Pakistan authorities must convince us that they are taking all the action that is necessary to deal with that threat. Expansion of the US-Pakistan relationship will require overcoming significant public and political mistrust in both countries, the Post said. Officials said that they recognize the difficulty in delivering on either US promises or threats, and that our leverage over Pakistan is very limited, the senior administration official said. At the same time, although the administrations goal is to demonstrate a new level and steadfastness of support, short-term US demands may threaten Pakistans already fragile political stability. Its going to be a game of cat-and-mouse with them for a while, another official said, adding that what were trying to do is to force them to recalculate where their advantage lies. The Pakistan strategy is complicated by a number of factors, including the fact that any indication of increased US involvement there generates broad mistrust, the dispatch said. Zardaris political weakness is an additional hazard for a new bilateral relationship, it said. He (Zardari) is disliked by the military and is challenged by the political opposition and his own prime minister; he also remains under a cloud of long-standing corruption charges. Less than a third of Pakistans population voices approval for him in polls. Obama is even less popular there, with approval ratings in the low double digits.