As the Obama adminstration gears up to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, the White House has approved an expansion of the CIA’s drone program in Pakistan, Fox News has confirmed.

Officials told Fox News on Friday that they see the program as one of the primary tools in targeting Al Qaeda — specifically the terrorist network’s leaders hiding in tribal areas of Pakistan.

The Obama administration reportedly is talking with Islamabad about expanding the ‘drones strikes’ program from Waziristan to Balochistan, a controversial move since it is outside the tribal areas, commented right-wing’s influential TV news channel FOX NEWS.

Balochistan is where Afghan Taliban leaders are believed to be hiding, the report said, echoing similar statements made by US and UK officials including PM Gordon Brown’s most recent broadside on this matter targeted at Pakistan administration.

Afghanistan’s southeastern provinces of Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul abut Balochistan. These provinces remain strongholds of Taliban.

Many in US Congress have grown skeptical that Islamabad is doing all it can to drive out Al Qaeda forces reportedly hiding along its mountainous Afghan border.

Obama has not said whether or how the troop buildup would accelerate attacks on the terrorist network supposedly hiding in Pakistan.

"It is not clear how an expanded military effort in Afghanistan addresses the problem of Taliban and Al Qaeda safe havens across the border in Pakistan," said Sen. Richard Lugar, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.