WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Defense Department on Monday confirmed it has a team of military advisers training the Pakistani army in counter-insurgency operations but said the programme has been openly discussed for months, rejecting a newspaper report suggesting it was a "secret" project. "The training effort with the (Pakistan) Frontier Corps is not a secret," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman, referring to a New York Times report. "We've talked about it on the record for several months," he told reporters. He said there were about 30 advisers involved in a "train the trainer" programme with the Frontier Corps, in which Pakistani soldiers undergo instruction from US officers and then go on to train their own troops operating in the restive border area. The programme was designed to "help the Frontiers Corps develop its own training programme in counter-insurgency techniques."He would not confirm or deny that the advisers were mainly from US Army Special Forces, as reported by the newspaper. "We've never really talked about the composition (of the US military team)," he said. There were fewer than 100 military personnel in total stationed in Pakistan, including the training contingent, he said. He added the United States "shares information" with the Pakistani authorities on militants.