New York: Undermining global efforts to combat terrorism, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia helped set the stage for the September 11 attacks on the US by cutting deals with the Taliban and Osama bin Laden that allowed his al-Qaeda terrorist network to flourish, a media report has said.

The financial aid to the Taliban and other assistance by two of the most important allies of the US in its war on terrorism date at least to 1996, and appear to have shielded them from al-Qaeda attacks within their own borders until long after the 2001 strikes on the US, the report said quoting several senior members of the September 11 Commission and US counter-terrorism officials. "That does appear to have been the arrangement," one senior member of the commission staff involved in investigating those relationships told the paper.

The officials said by not cracking down on bin Laden, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia significantly undermined efforts to combat terrorism worldwide, giving the Saudi exile the haven he needed to train tens of thousands of soldiers.

They believe that the Governments' funding of his Taliban protectors enabled bin Laden to withstand international pressure and expand his operation into a global network that could carry out the September 11 attacks, 'The Los Angeles Times' reported.

Pakistan provided even more direct assistance, its military and intelligence agencies often coordinating efforts with the Taliban and al-Qaeda, Commission and US officials were quoted as saying.