WASHINGTON - New American initiatives in Pakistan are yielding positive results such as intelligence sharing on operations along the border with Afghanistan, US officials say. The increased cooperation is credited to the US cultivation of key leaders in Pakistan that was beginning to pay dividends, officials told The Los Angeles Times (LAT). As a result, Islamabad is cooperating more, both in letting the United States and Afghanistan know about anti-militant campaign, and in joint efforts to catch Islamist militants, the newspaper said in a report published Monday. The United States is also getting Pakistani intelligence support in the effort to locate a US soldier captured by the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan, it said. In return, the officials say the United States has been providing Pakistan information collected by its military drones about militant strongholds in tribal areas to support the Pakistani militarys campaign to root out extremists from these areas. The cooperation is the best I have ever seen it, and I have seen a lot, a high-ranking American official was quoted as saying. The report said the Pakistani public had come to accept that militants were a big threat to the country. It says Pakistan has been providing intelligence help to the US in its search for a soldier captured in Afghanistan, part of a warming partnership between Islamabad and Washington. With a confidence boost provided by a series of operations against Taliban inside Pakistan, Islamabad has stepped up the intelligence and military cooperation provided to the US, and to a lesser degree Afghanistan, in the last six months, according to US officials. The Pakistan Armys three-month offensive in Swat and the beginning of military operations in Waziristan have made important inroads against militants in the border region, the US officials said. Army Gen Stanley A McChrystal, the top American commander in Afghanistan, said he was committed to strengthening US-Pakistan cooperation both through confidence-building measures and concrete initiatives like border control centres. We have to do as many as we can, we have to make them as effective as we can and keep building on that, McChrystal said. US military drone flights into Pakistan, designed to help collect intelligence against militant targets, have resumed, and the information is being shared and analysed with the Pakistan Army at the Joint Coordination Centre at the border Torkham Gate in Afghanistan, American officials said. Officials differed on the value of the intelligence Pakistan has shared on Private First Class (Pfc) Bowe R Bergdahl, who was captured by Taliban in Afghanistan on June 30. One senior defence official acknowledged that Islamabad had provided intelligence, but cautioned not to overstate its value. Another official said the information had been important to American forces searching for Bergdahl. They have been helpful, the US government official said. They have been very, very helpful. Neither official would describe the nature of the assistance because the search for the soldier is ongoing. And the government official said intelligence sharing between the US and Pakistan could still be significantly expanded. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity when discussing intelligence matters. The cooperation is the best I have ever seen it, and I have seen a lot, said the government official. US officials said the biggest example of expanded cooperation with Islamabad is Pakistans expanded counterinsurgency operations against Taliban in the Swat Valley and against Baitullah Mehsud in the Waziristan region. The Pakistanis have, for the last three months, been fighting hard, the senior defence official said. They are fighting their war against extremists, not our global war on terror. Army Col Kevin Fagedes, who oversees the training of Afghan security forces in the central district of Afghanistan, has said cooperation is increasing in the three eastern border provinces he works in. Previously, Fagedes said the Pakistanis would call only after an incident occurred to discuss the aftermath with Afghan forces or American trainers. But three times in recent weeks, they have called to discuss and coordinate operations, he said, asking Afghan forces to block militants from escaping. I see great progress coming in the next six months, Fagedes said. The spirit of cooperation is out there. The Pakistanis have had very good success at what they are doing. . . . Everyone is starting to consider what is occurring on the other side of the border when they do operations.