NEW YORK (APP): US and Pakistani officials are considering joint counterterrorism campaigns in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a major American newspaper reported Saturday, saying the move would mark an upturn in cooperation after more than a year of "rancorous" relations. "The campaigns would be intended to help stamp out major security threats facing each country, targeting what the US says are sanctuaries for the Haqqani network, and what Pakistan says are sanctuaries for the Pakistani Taliban in Afghanistan," The Wall Street Journal said in a dispatch on the talks the ISI chief Lt Gen Zaheer Ul Islam had with his CIA counterpart David Petraeus as well as officials of the State Department and Pentagon. The plans are considered, at best, promising, the dispatch said, pointing out that US officials have long pressed Pakistani counterparts to target the Haqqani group, but without success. "Pakistan's democratic government is committed to moving forward with the US in many shared goals," Pakistan's ambassador to the US, Sherry Rehman, was quoted as saying by The Wall Street Journal. She said her government is working to reshape its relationships in the region. "Better ties with the US can help us in this broader goal of creating equities for peace instead of volatility in a region that is going through many security transitions." "It's a good beginning," Vali Nasr, a former top State Department official who is dean of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, was quoted as saying. He pointed out that in previous joint campaigns, Pakistan has asked to be involved in all aspects of intelligence-gathering. But the US side has looked skeptically at Pakistani requests to share information about coming raids. "It's always been a sticking point," said Nasr, an American of Iranian origin. Also discussed was Pakistan's demand for a halt to CIA drone strikes in Pakistan. but no agreement was reached on any changes to the programme, the Journal said, citing officials. US and Pakistani officials, according to the dispatch, both described this week's meetings as productive and indicative of a higher level of trust than in previous meetings. Until now, counterterrorism negotiations between the sides have been largely on hold after US forces killed 24 Pakistani troops near Afghanistan's border in November. As tensions rose over the US's refusal to apologize for the incident, Gen. Islam, the new Pakistani intelligence chief, deferred a June invitation from the CIA to visit Washington. A US decision to apologize for the Pakistani soldiers' deaths jump-started talks over the highly contentious CIA drone programme. Pakistan then announced that Gen. Islam would make his first trip to Washington since becoming chief of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency in March. On Wednesday, Ambassador Rehman hosted a dinner at her residence for Lt. Gen. Islam, CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell and top lawmakers on the House and Senate intelligence committees. There they discussed "mutual challenges," according to one participant cited by WSJ. On Thursday, CIA Director David Petraeus hosted a dinner for Gen. Islam and Ms. Rehman. "Both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to work together to counter the terrorist presence in the region that threatens both US and Pakistani national security," a senior US official said of the Petraeus-Islam meeting. In meetings with CIA's Petraeus and other officials, Lt. Gen. Islam explained that US concessions on drones and the Taliban sites in Afghanistan would give Islamabad room to build domestic support for counterterrorism work with the US, the newspaper quoted officials as saying. Under this proposal, the US would also work with Pakistan to control the Afghan side of the border, so militants driven out couldn't escape into the Afghan border region, these officials said. The Pakistanis have named the planned offensive, in North Waziristan, Operation Tight Screw, according to WSJ. During this week's meetings, Pakistani officials asked the US to target about a half-dozen Pakistani Taliban operatives, based in the Nuristan and Kunar provinces of Afghanistan, who Pakistan says have carried out dozens of attacks across the border, killing Pakistani soldiers, according to officials briefed on the meetings. Last year, the US military began scaling back its operations in remote parts of Nuristan and Kunar provinces as it focused its efforts on southern Afghanistan and Afghanistan's major population centers, the Journal said.