NEW YORK, Feb 12: President Asif Ali Zardari made a major pitch for urgent US economic assistance to shore up Pakistan’s crumbling economy during his meetings with US special envoy Richard Holbrooke, the New York Times said on Thursday.

The newspaper said Washington also wanted to convince the poorly organised and almost bankrupt civilian government, led by President Asif Ali Zardari, that it must support the military in its counter-insurgency efforts by providing proper governance and development.

The challenge for the new administration is how to persuade a Pakistani military fixated on its arch enemy India to reorient its troops to fight the Al Qaeda and Taliban insurgency that is engulfing the country, said the Times.

Mr Holbrooke who wound down his whistle-stop tour of Pakistan on Thursday in Lahore “heard a familiar list of requests for more money and arms from Pakistan’s top leadership, as well as a litany of complaints about American airstrikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas using Predator drones, the newspaper said.

Mr Holbrooke’s trip to Pakistan, and his four-day tour of Afghanistan, was part of a top-to-bottom review of American policy in the region ordered by President Obama,the Times said. Made a major pitch for immediate American economic assistance, officials told the paper.

Officials familiar with the conversations say Mr Holbrooke was faced with universal opposition to the Predator strikes, which American officials say have helped disrupt the Qaeda network.

What, if anything, the Obama administration planned to do about the protests over the missile attacks was not clear, officials said.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi called the attacks “counter-productive” and said that Pakistan and the United States would form a joint team of officials to review policy differences, including the missile attacks.