Obama: U.S. does not plan to put troops in Pakistan

The strategy seeks to build trust and improve ties with an ally that Washington has at times supported and at times ignored but now sees as critical in the fight against the militant group that carried out the September 11 attacks on the United States, U.S. officials said.

"The relationship between Pakistan and the United States is immensely complicated and it isn't quite where it should be," Holbrooke said.

"Clearly there has to be the establishment of true trust there," added Gen. David Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command. "We've had ups and downs between our countries over the years. We've now got to get on an up and stay on an up with them."

To uproot al Qaeda, Obama said, the United States had to ensure it could not find a base in Afghanistan or Pakistan from which to organise attacks. He said Washington also needed to convince average Pakistanis that the struggle with extremists was not just a U.S. war.

"One of the concerns that we've had building up over the last several years is a notion, I think, among the average Pakistani, that this is somehow America's war and they are not invested," Obama said.

"What we want to do is say to the Pakistani people -- you are our friends, you are our allies. We are going to give you the tools to defeat al Qaeda and to root out these safe havens, but we also expect some accountability," he said.

(Editing by Eric Beech)