WASHINGTON, Feb. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- The US Defense Department is seeking powers to allow Special Operations forces to enter foreign countries to combat terrorist threats without seeking permission from resident US ambassadors, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

    The report, quoting administration officials familiar with the Pentagon's request, said the plan would weaken the long-standing "chief of mission" authority under which the US ambassador -- as the president's top representative in a foreign country ¨C decides whether to grant entry to US government personnel based on political and diplomatic considerations.

    Special Operations missions envisioned in the plan would largely be secret, known to only a handful of officials from the foreign country concerned, if any, the report said.

    The change is included in a highly classified "execute order" --part of a broad strategy developed since Sept. 11, 2001 to give the US Special Operations Command new flexibility to track down and destroy terrorist networks worldwide.

    The Pentagon sees the greater leeway as vital in enabling commando forces to launch operations quickly and stealthily against terrorist groups without time-consuming inter-agency debate, said administration officials.

    In the Pentagon's view, the campaign against terrorism is a war and requires similar freedom to prosecute as in Iraq where the military chain of command coordinates closely with the US embassy but is not subject to traditional chief-of-mission authority, the report says.

    Both the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have opposed the proposal on the grounds that it would be dangerous to dilute the authority of US ambassadors and CIA station chiefs to oversee US military and intelligence activities in other countries.

    Over the past two years, the State Department has repeatedly blocked Defense Department efforts to send Special Operations forces into countries surreptitiously and without the' formal approval of ambassadors, the report quoted current and former administration officials as saying. Enditem