June 26 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari asked the Obama administration to provide his armed forces with advanced American weapons to help crush Taliban insurgents in the tribal zone bordering Afghanistan.

Zardari, meeting with White House National Security Adviser James Jones in Islamabad yesterday, urged the U.S. to provide drone technology to boost his country’s “capacity to eliminate militants from its soil,” according to the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan.

Suspected U.S. drones this week fired missiles at the funeral of a militant commander in South Waziristan, inside the tribal belt, killing 80 people, the News newspaper said. Pakistani officials have repeatedly protested similar attacks by U.S.-operated Predator drones, saying the civilian casualties they cause undermine the government’s efforts to win over the population and isolate extremists.

Zardari asked the Obama administration to provide the Predator, one of the most advanced U.S. unmanned warplanes, when he visited the White House last month, said Marvin Weinbaum, a South Asia analyst and former State Department officer at Washington’s Middle East Institute. The U.S. offered further cooperation in sharing intelligence from the drone flights over Taliban strongholds, “but said basically, ‘let’s face it -- we’re not going to turn over hardware,’” Weinbaum said in a telephone interview, citing contacts in the administration.

Predator’s Cost

The roughly 10-meter- (33 feet-) long Predators, built by San Diego-based General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., cost $4.5 million apiece and are armed with Hellfire missiles.

In February, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, questioned Pakistan’s protests over the Predator strikes, saying “as I understand it, these are flown out of a Pakistani base.” Zardari’s government has denied, and the U.S. administration declines to discuss, U.S. and Pakistani media reports that Predators are flown in Pakistan by the Central Intelligence Agency under a secret agreement.

Zardari’s meeting with Jones came as security forces prepare an offensive against Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud in his stronghold in South Waziristan, where the U.S. says al-Qaeda fighters also shelter and plot attacks on the West. The military says it is also close to completing an eight-week offensive against insurgents in the northwestern Swat Valley.

President Barack Obama has pledged $7.5 billion to Pakistan over five years on condition the government tackles extremists.

Fled Fighting

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, in an earlier meeting with Jones, complained that the international community hadn’t done enough to help Pakistan battle the militants and cope with an estimated 2 million refugees who fled fighting in Swat.

Gilani, in a statement released after the meeting, expressed “disappointment over the world response to help Pakistan win against these evil forces and to provide relief to the dislocated people.”

He asked the U.S. to write off Pakistan’s debt to help the country overcome its economic difficulties and make up for losses suffered as a frontline state in the campaign against international terrorism, according to the statement.

Pakistani troops moved into Swat and neighboring districts on April 26 after the Taliban advanced to within 100 kilometers (62 miles) of Islamabad, violating an accord to end fighting in return for the government placing the region under Islamic law.

The resulting exodus of civilians has stretched the resources of the government and relief agencies. The United Nations says infrastructure in the areas where the refugees have gathered is insufficient and warned of the threat of disease.

To contact the reporters on this story: Michael Heath in Sydney at mheath1@bloomberg.net; Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 26, 2009 07:59 EDT