IN line with the views President Barack Obama had been expressing during his election campaign, the Americans have begun focusing their attention on preparing a comprehensive strategy to root out Al-Qaeda, which they believe has firmly entrenched itself in the FATA. During the course of the question-answer session at his first White House press conference on Monday, President Obama firmly declared, "My bottom line is that we cannot allow Al-Qaeda to operate. We cannot have those safe havens in that region." He recalled how deeply he felt about the "cost of allowing those safe havens to exist" when he met last week with the families of those who had perished in the 9/11 tragedy for which, he pointed out, the region had served as the base. The US thinks that any such attack in the future would also originate from here. Some of Mr Obama's team members - Gen David Petraeus, who heads the CENTCOM and is credited with turning the tide in Iraq, and special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, for instance - are in the process of reviewing the ground realities to formulate a new policy. However, it is quite obvious from his press conference that the new President visualises a regional approach under which focused military coordination goes hand in hand with diplomatic as well as development efforts. Although at the press conference, he did not talk of the need to settle disputes plaguing the region and which serve as the breeding ground for militants, there is little doubt about the fact that he is conscious that to get "the kind of concerted effort to root out" Al-Qaeda sanctuaries from Islamabad, their resolution is urgently called for. One would expect that Washington would be making deft diplomatic efforts to persuade New Delhi to shed its self-defeating sensitivities and understand the rationale of removing these contentious issues in the larger interest of peace and security in the region. The contacts between the US and Pakistan should be utilised to bring home to the Americans that the eagerness to go ahead with achieving their objective by launching drone attacks is not proving helpful. On the contrary, they are creating anti-US feelings and making the task of Pakistan harder. The US should put into effect the comprehensive strategy that includes diplomacy and economic development. The failure of military means so far should convince it of the primacy of these factors in winning the hearts and minds of the people. The visits of Mr Holbrooke to Pakistan and COAS Gen Ashfaq Kayani to the US should prove suitable occasions to put across our point of view.