The debate is a response to intelligence reports that al-Qaeda and the Taliban are intensifying efforts there to destabilise the Pakistani government, several senior administration officials said.

Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a number of President Bush’s top national security advisers met on Friday at the White House to discuss the proposal, which is part of a broad reassessment of American strategy after the assassination of  Benazir Bhutto. There was also talk of how to handle the period from now to the February 18 elections, and the aftermath of those elections.

Several of the participants in the meeting argued that the threat to the government of President Pervez Musharraf was now so grave that both Mr Musharraf and Pakistan’s new military leadership were likely to give the United States more latitude, officials said.

But no decisions were made, said the officials, who declined to speak for attribution because of the highly delicate nature of the discussions.