Dr Abdul Wahid Soomro (MNA Pakistan Peoples Party)

(Reuters) - U.S. and Pakistani officials on Wednesday begin a third round of wide-ranging talks to broaden relations beyond the war against Islamist insurgents, but analysts expected little headway because of differing strategic interests.

Officials plan to discuss everything from water to energy, but the thre

The dialogue led by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi culminates on Friday. Pakistan's army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani will also take part and hold talks at the Pentagon.

The Pentagon and the Pakistani military have been talking about a framework for security assistance, he said. "We specifically worked with the Pakistanis over the summer to identify what would be the types of military equipment and so on,"

"That will be a topic of discussion at the strategic dialogue," Ruggiero said declining to spell out details of the proposed aid package. But CNN said the package totals as much as $2 billion over five years.

Top U.S. policy makers, who will meet with their Pakistani counterparts in Washington this week, say they doubt Islamabad will agree in the near term to mount a major army campaign against al Qaeda-linked militants in their biggest sanctuary bordering Afghanistan, officials say. Instead, American officials are pushing Pakistan to agree to interim steps to increase pressure on the militant groups, such as by carrying out more targeted operations using U.S.-trained special operations units, according to officials close to the deliberations.

U.S. frustration with Pakistan has grown over what American officials see as Islamabad's unwillingness to mount a campaign against militants who have havens in North Waziristan and Baluchistan. North Waziristan is the main base for operations for the Haqqani network, an extremist group that frequently attacks U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan and has close ties to al Qaeda, which also takes refuge in the area. Leaders of the Afghan Taliban are based in Baluchistan.

Pakistani officials said Islamabad is willing to step up the current level of surgical strikes. But they said a full-scale clearing operation in North Waziristan isn't possible because large numbers of its troops and equipment are being used to respond to recent devastating flooding, the country's worst yet, and are being used to rout militants from other areas.