"We requested more help in the form of air assets, surveillance and communications and received a positive response from the US," the official who participated in the talks, told AFP. He asked not to be named.

The meeting of the Pakistan-US Joint Working Group on Counter Terrorism and Law Enforcement was the third since it was set up in 2002, a year after Islamabad joined the US-led war on terror and helped oust Afghanistan's Taliban rulers.

The official said the talks focussed on ways to bolster Pakistani security forces' capacity to pursue the campaign against al-Qaeda-linked terrorism and deny sanctuary to Taliban rebels.

Pakistan's top interior ministry official Tariq Mahmood led the Islamabad delegation that included foreign ministry and finance officials.

The US delegation was led by Joseph Cofer Black, head of the counter-terrorism office in Secretary of State Colin Powell's office, and included senior narcotics, law enforcement and justice officials.