ISLAMABAD: The United States believes Pakistan’s military has no intention of trying to seize power, US Central Command chief Gen. David Petraeus said during a visit to an ally that is struggling against Taleban militants.

The movements of Pakistan’s all-powerful military are closely watched both at home and in Western countries such as the United States and Britain, which are piling pressure on the government to help them fight a resurgent Taleban in Afghanistan.

The military has ruled for more than half of Pakistan’s turbulent 62-year history. In a briefing with Pakistani journalists during a visit to Islamabad, Petraeus said Pakistan’s military had told him it was not interested in destabilizing the civilian government.

“I have seen no indication that (army chief) Gen. Ashfaq Kayani is entertaining such a notion,” local newspapers on Tuesday quoted Petraeus as telling reporters at the US ambassador’s residence when asked about his meeting with Kayani.

“Whenever we have talked to them they say they are committed to democratically elected civilian government.” The army is seen as the institution best able to unite Pakistan in times of crisis, even though military coups have hurt the country’s democratic credentials.

But its vulnerability to increasingly daring militants became clear this month when suicide bombers and gunmen killed at least 40 people in an attack on a mosque near army headquarters, 30 minutes from the capital Islamabad. Such attacks close to the heart of the military establishment would have been unthinkable in the 1980s, when Pakistan’s army and intelligence service backed militants in their war against Soviet occupation troops in Afghanistan.

President Asif Zardari has called for urgent national action to fight the growing threat from the Taleban.

Some militants are fighting the government but others cross into Afghanistan to attack US-led troops from lawless tribal strongholds with forbidding mountain terrain.

Analysts say Pakistan resists pressure to crack down on those types of fighters because it sees them as leverage against the influence of its traditional enemy and fellow nuclear power India in Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s APP news agency cited Zardari as saying that “extremism and militancy was gnawing society at the core” and that the writ of the government must be established “at all costs.”

Zardari, who is deeply unpopular partly because of his ties with Washington, has other troubles which analysts say could distract him from the war against militants.

He is fighting for his political survival at a critical time for the region and some of his aides, including the interior and defense ministers, may face revived corruption charges.

Western allies are highly unlikely to ease their push for Pakistan to root out Taleban and Al-Qaeda fighters crossing over to Afghanistan from a region seen as a global hub for militants.

The demands have inflamed already high anti-American anger.

Many Pakistanis believe their government is fighting America’s war despite a wave of militant bomb attacks in towns and cities.