New Delhi, Dec. 27: America could be holding back from piling pressure on Pakistan to weed out terror camps on its soil because of its “vulnerability” in the region, experts have suggested.

The US war on terror in Afghanistan, a fight in which it was assisted by Pakistan, could be putting it in a dilemma on whether it should go full steam and pressure its ally, a former envoy to Washington has said.

“We don’t have adequate leverage with Pakistan to get them to act. The US has. But the US has a dilemma, too. They are waging a war on Afghanistan, and targeting the Taliban and al Qaida sanctuaries in parts of Pakistan. They depend on Pakistan support and the use of their territory for this,” Lalit Mansingh, a former foreign secretary, said.

Unattributed reports said yesterday Pakistan has shifted some of its troops from the Afghan border to Lahore and to forward posts facing Rajouri and Poonch. These are reinforcements for the formations already deployed in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and the Sialkot and Lahore sectors, the reports said.

Mansingh said “the fight against terror is 80 per cent internal (putting in place proper policing mechanism, intelligence gathering) and 20 per cent external, which includes diplomacy”.

Washington could also be hamstrung by the fact that it has a government in transition, another expert said.

“The US has its own interest in the region, namely, the immediacy of the war on terror in Afghanistan. Then, the US is in a transition to the next presidency. So they have some limitations on that ground, too,” former diplomat M.K. Bhadrakumar said.

He said it was evident India was looking beyond the US, considering it had approached China already. “If West Asia flares up again, the US will have to put more focus there, too.”