U.S. intelligence has warned for more than a year that elements of the Taliban and Al Qaeda have regrouped and strengthened in the tribal areas, where the Pakistani government has almost no authority. Pakistani military efforts in the borderlands have had little effect.
"There may be some new parameters set on outside types of intervention," said a Western official in Pakistan, speaking on condition of anonymity. "But I think we will still be able to achieve certain objectives that would be in everyone's interests."
Closer civilian oversight of Pakistan's shadowy intelligence services is one expected change under the new administration, said a senior figure in the ruling coalition, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
In the past, the Pakistani intelligence services helped nurture the Taliban and other militant groups, seeing them as a means of challenging India over Kashmir and keeping neighboring Afghanistan quiescent.
Even while promising changes in government strategy for dealing with the militants, Gillani, the prime minister, stressed in his policy address that Pakistan and the Americans wanted many of the same things.
"It is our fight too," he said.
But Gillani and other senior coalition figures have suggested that they want to see far greater emphasis on education and economic aid in the impoverished tribal areas.
Officials in the new government, including Gillani, have raised the idea of talks with the militants -- but not without conditions. The new prime minister said the government would be willing to negotiate with insurgents who laid down their arms.
Other leaders, though, say many of the insurgents fall into a gray area. Maulana Fazlur Rehman, whose religious party has allied itself with the ruling coalition, said someone should not be branded a terrorist just for having devout religious beliefs.
"It is difficult to divide humanity on the basis of who is an extremist and should be eliminated, and who is a moderate and can be lived with," he told lawmakers.
Negroponte, at the end of his visit, told reporters in the port city of Karachi that some extremists were "irreconcilable" and negotiations with them would be impossible.
"I don't see how you can talk to these kinds of people," he said.
Militants clearly hope to drive a wedge between the new government and the U.S. over the issue. A leader of Pakistan's Taliban, Maulana Faqir Mohammed, said he would welcome talks with Pakistani leaders.
"Our war is with America," Mohammed said.
Many Pakistanis have bitter memories of undiminished American support for Musharraf during a period of de facto martial law last year, during which thousands of political opponents were thrown in jail. Days after the start of that crackdown, Negroponte, testifying before Congress, described Musharraf as an "indispensable" ally.
In Karachi, asked for his current assessment of a leader now vulnerable to impeachment by a hostile parliament, the envoy paused.
"He is of course president of the country," he said of Musharraf. Whatever the Pakistani people decide about his ultimate political fate, Negroponte said, "we will certainly respect."
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laura.king@latimes.com
