As Pakistani troops unleashed their second major assault this week on Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters near the border with Afghanistan, Powell said President George W. Bush would soon designate Pakistan a "major non-NATO ally."

Just hours after his announcement, Powell told reporters en route to his next stop in Kuwait that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf had given him new information about the proliferation activities of scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.

He declined to provide details but said the information related to US concerns that current or former Pakistani officials may have known about or encouraged Khan's dealings with Iran, Libya and North Korea.

Musharraf "gave me a summary of the relationship that AQ Khan had with those who were in authority over that period of time," Powell said, adding that he wanted to discuss the new information with his colleagues before commenting further.

"No responsible government of Pakistan should have tolerated such thing and I hope they did not," he said. "I hope it was something that he was doing on his own. But we got to get all the facts."

Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program and a national hero, admitted last month to the clandestine proliferation but he and Islamabad have insisted he acted alone. Musharraf pardoned Khan immediately after the confession.

Powell said Pakistan's new status was not a reward for Musharraf's action against Khan but allowed that the designation would significantly enhance military cooperation and make it easier for Islamabad to acquire certain armaments from Washington.

The designation means Pakistan will join an exclusive club of nations -- including Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, New Zealand, South Korea, Thailand and the Philippines, which are given preferential treatment.

Pakistan has become a key US ally in the war on terrorism, dropping its support of the Taliban, allowing US troops to use its airbases and intelligence for the campaign to oust the regime in late 2001 and arresting more than 500 Al-Qaeda fugitives.

After Powell made clear earlier this week that he would tell Pakistan to toughen up its border military operations, its forces Tuesday raided the remote tribal village of Kalushah where extremists were hiding among tribesmen.

Pakistani forces suffered at least 15 deaths while 12 other soldiers were still missing. They said 24 militants were killed.

On Thursday paramilitaries backed by army troops and helicopter gunships stormed tribesmen's homes in Kalushah and neighbouring Azam Warzak village in a hunt for heavily armed Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

En route to Kuwait, Powell, a retired general and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Musharraf had briefed him on the operation in a "soldier-to-soldier" manner as it was going on.

"He (Musharraf) is serious about going after these individuals," Powell said. "He understands the threat they pose to his country and also to Afghanistan, which will affect his country."

Islamabad was first rewarded for its cooperation in late 2001 with the lifting of US sanctions -- which dated back as far as 1990 -- on military cooperation, training, and sales.

Since then the US military has resumed bilateral defence talks with Pakistan, some training and limited hardware sales.

Major non-NATO allies of the United States are eligible for priority delivery of defense material and the purchase, for instance, of depleted uranium anti-tank rounds.

However, the designation does not afford them the same mutual defense guarantees enjoyed by members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Officials stressed it would not affect Pakistan's long-stalled bid to buy sophisticated F-16 fighters.

Pakistan's neighbor and nuclear rival India, long an ally of the US, does not enjoy "major non-NATO ally" status.

WAR.WIRE