The US presidential hopeful Barack Obama says he will strike at al-Qaeda targets in Pakistan if Washington gets "actionable intelligence".

"... what I've said is that if we had actionable intelligence against high-value al-Qaeda targets and the Pakistani government was unwilling to go after those targets, then we should," the Democrat, who aspires to be the first black-American president, noted.

The 47-year-old senator from Illinois, currently on a tour to Afghanistan and Iraq, told the CBS News, "Now, my hope is that it doesn't come to that. Pakistani government would recognize that if we had Osama bin Laden in our sights, that we should fire or capture..."


Media reports say Washington is taking steps to make it easier to launch covert special missions in Pakistan's remote tribal areas, near Afghan border, where al-Qaeda is believed to be rebuilding its network.

Pakistan's newly elected PPP-led government, apparently seeking to quell such criticism, said that the country has taken "several measures to prevent cross-border infiltration by insurgents."

JR/RA