By Augustine Anthony

ISLAMABAD, March 28 (Reuters) - A senior U.S. official visiting Pakistan held out the prospect of increased assistance for the new government on Friday, while stressing the need to work together to fight al Qaeda and Islamist militancy.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher said there were militants in Pakistani tribal areas planning attacks on Pakistan, Afghanistan, Europe, the United States and elsewhere.

"We want to move together to help Pakistan be safe and have economic opportunities and we want to move together to make Pakistan a success as a democratic society," Boucher said.

He made his comments at a joint news conference with Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, whose party leads the new coalition government.

"So, as the government lays out its plan, in that regard, we will look for the proper ways to support," he said. A body of opinion was forming in the United States that Pakistan should get more assistance, he said.

Boucher and Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte arrived on Tuesday, a few hours before Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was sworn in to lead a coalition government that aims to change the way counter-terrorism cooperation with the United States is conducted.

Their visit angered many Pakistanis who saw it as an attempt to influence the new government and shore up President Pervez Musharraf, who came to power as a general after a coup in 1999.

U.S. ally Musharraf has become increasingly isolated since his allies lost a February election and there is speculation that he could be forced to quit within weeks or months.

"OUR WAR TOO"

Until he gave up his dual role as army chief last November, Musharraf had represented a one-stop shop for the United States regarding operations ranging from renditions of al Qaeda suspects to missile strikes by CIA-operated drone aircraft.

A source close to the new government said the U.S. military has problems adjusting to dealing with institutional mechanisms that Pakistan's new leaders want to put in place governing the scope of cooperation.

Pakistan needs as much financial as it can get. A World Bank report released on Thursday said rapid adjustments and reforms were needed to avert an economic crisis as it suffers from the impact of high international oil and food prices.

U.S. assistance to Pakistan since it joined Washington's war on terrorism in 2001 totalled over $10 billion, most of it for the military. Another $750 million has been earmarked for security and social sector projects in the tribal areas.

Boucher said the United States understood and was ready to support a broad-based, multi-faceted programme to counter the problem of terrorism and extremism in Pakistan.

Helping the United States hunt al Qaeda has brought Pakistan's army into conflict with its own people, and tribes living in the semi-autonomous lands along the Afghan border have been alienated by Musharraf's policies.

The militants intensified a campaign of violence to destabilise Musharraf after troops stormed a Islamabad's Red Mosque last July to crush an armed student movement.

Suicide attacks have multiplied, and almost 600 people have been killed in militant related violence so far this year.'

Speaking three months after his wife's murder in a suicide bomb and gun attack, Zardari said it was "Pakistan's war as much as anybody's else's". (Writing by Simon Cameron-Moore; Editing by Jon Boyle)

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