ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistani called on the United States on Sunday to share information about new al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri after US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said he believed that Osama bin Laden's successor was in Pakistan.

During his first trip to Kabul on Saturday as Pentagon chief, Panetta said he believed that the new al-Qaida leader was living in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border.

The Pakistani military said its troops were already carrying out "intense operations" against al-Qaida and its affiliates as well as "terrorists leadership" and high value targets (HVTs) who pose a threat to Pakistan's security.

"We expect the US intelligence establishment to share available information and actionable intelligence regarding al-Zawahri and other HVTs with us, enabling the Pakistan Army to carry out targeted operations," a military spokesman said in a statement.

The former CIA chief said the strategic defeat of al-Qaida was within reach if the US could kill or capture up to 20 remaining leaders of the core group and its affiliates.

He said these militant leaders were living in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and in North Africa.

Panetta said now was the time - in the wake of bin Laden's killing in Pakistan in May - to intensify efforts to target al-Qaida leadership, adding that the United States would like Pakistan to target al-Zawahri in the tribal areas.

On Sunday, Panetta flew into Helmand Province, where mostly US forces are battling the nearly decade-long Taliban insurgency.

His visit comes as commanders prepare to hand over seven NATO-held areas to Afghan control starting in mid-July, but amid widespread doubt over the ability of Afghan forces to take full responsibility for their own security.

Panetta said on Saturday that the focus of his trip would be the handover to Afghan-led security, acknowledging that there remained "a lot more work to do in terms of being able to transition the responsibility to them".

"The key to success in Afghanistan is the ability to successfully transition to the Afghans," he said after holding high-level talks in the capital Kabul.

"That means they have to develop a capable military, a capable police force, capable local militias that are going to be able to maintain stability. That's the key and that's the area we're gonna focus on."

US President Barack Obama has announced that 10,000 US forces will leave Afghanistan this year and another 23,000 by the end of September 2012, ahead of a full withdrawal of foreign forces in 2014.

General David Petraeus, the top commander in Afghanistan who is due to leave his post this month, said the overall number of insurgent attacks on Afghan and foreign forces was down, defying the expectations of intelligence analysts.

Attacks had decreased "a few percent" for May and June, the beginning of the traditional annual fighting season, said Petraeus, although he said the number of homemade bomb explosions had risen.

Intelligence analysts had predicted a rise in insurgent attacks of 18 to 30 percent on last year, Petraeus said, while he cautioned that it was too early to declare the insurgency had been significantly hit.

Petraeus is due to take up Panetta's old position at the CIA in September.

Reuters-AFP