The US this year will start spending in earnest $750 million where its troops can't go in the hope of making Pakistan's unruly tribal lands less hospitable for Al-Qaida and the Taliban.
If the Americans succeed they hope other nations will join them in putting up a total $2 billion for development and security in Pakistan's semi-autonomous Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) by 2015.
No-one has thought it worth risking lives and money before to bring lasting change to a region where fiercely independent tribes have fought against outside interference for centuries.
A ferocious suicide bombing campaign run out of the tribal lands to destabilize President Pervez Musharraf has fuelled dread in the West over the future of nuclear-armed Pakistan, especially after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto last month.
The US fears Islamist militants using satellite telephones and laptops in mud-walled compounds on Pakistan's fabled north west frontier are plotting a devastating attack in the West, just as Al-Qaida did from Afghanistan in 2001.
The abiding threat from the Taliban has forced the US to raise troop strength in Afghanistan by 10 percent to 30,000.
Musharraf won't allow American forces to enter Pakistani territory to fight a common enemy. But US military officials see greater willingness on Pakistan's part to accept some kind of help, including training for counter-insurgency operations.
Pakistan has deployed about 100,000 troops in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan, but results have been patchy, largely because the militants have garnered support among poor, illiterate tribesmen, all too ready to answer calls for jihad.
The US has already given about $10 billion to Pakistan, most for its military, in the six years since it strong-armed Musharraf to become an ally after the 9/11 terror attacks.
Overall literacy among FATA's 3.2 million people is just 17 percent compared with 56 percent nationally.
Source: China Daily/Agencies
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