WASHINGTON: US Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said the Pakistani military has pledged to go after militants that the US wants targeted in the North Waziristan tribal region.

Mullen said Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani has given assurances that he will mount an offensive in the tribal region along the Afghan border.

"He has committed to me to go into North Waziristan and to root out these terrorists as well," Mullen reportedly said in an interview on Bloomberg Television's "Conversations with Judy Woodruff" to be broadcast this weekend.

"He clearly knows what our priorities are…North Waziristan is the epicentre of terrorism," Mullen said.

"It's where al-Qaeda lives."

He further said that the objective was to defeat al-Qaeda and ensure Afghanistan would not again become a haven for the group.

Pakistan says its army is stretched by the fight against militants in six tribal regions and a flood that inundated a fifth of the country in July.