WASHINGTON: The Pakistani military’s powerful and controversial spy agency needs reform but there is no indication this is happening yet, the top US diplomat for South Asia said on Monday.

“It has to be done,” Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard Boucher said of revamping the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, widely known as the ISI.

Asked if he had seen signs of reform, he told Reuters: “No, I don’t have anything in particular I would point to right now.” Despite its help in fighting Al-Qaeda, the ISI is viewed with deep suspicion by US officials who believe it retains links to the Taleban and other militants blamed for supporting attacks on US forces across the border in Afghanistan.

In July, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Pakistani agents were behind some of the violence in his country, including a suicide attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul. India also has blamed Pakistani intelligence agents, a charge Pakistan denied.

The spy agency is also suspected of having a hand in helping destabilize past civilian governments in Pakistan.

Pakistan’s new government led by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani tried to rein in the ISI in July by placing it under Interior Ministry control, only to reverse course within days in an embarrassing flip-flop.

The United States has repeatedly called on the Pakistani military to do more to gain control of its lawless regions near the border with Afghanistan, where there are 33,000 US troops, many of them seeking to combat a Taleban insurgency.

US officials believe the insurgents enjoy safe haven in Pakistan and see no way of defeating them without greater efforts on the Pakistani side of the border.

In what has been interpreted as a sign of US impatience, American ground troops on Sept. 3 made what is believed to be their first ground incursion into Pakistan since the deployment of US forces in Afghanistan in late 2001.

Asked why the new Pakistani government was more likely to act than under its predecessor, President Pervez Musharraf, Boucher replied: “It’s sad to say, but the problem has become more and more acute.”