'Success will require a sustained and expanded commitment from the international community,' he said at a New York hotel, according to prepared remarks released by the White House.

The Senate's unanimous approval set the stage for action in the House of Representatives, where the measure could be introduced as early as Friday with a vote expected soon thereafter that would send it to Obama to sign into law.

Richard Holbrooke, the president's special envoy to both Afghanistan and Pakistan, hailed the vote as 'a very important step forward' for sometimes tense relations between the US and Pakistan.

Democratic Senator John Kerry, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a lead author of the bill, said it would help 'forge a new long-term relationship between the people of America and Pakistan'.

Holbrooke said the Pakistanis are coming to terms with the need to defeat the extremists sheltering along its unruly border area. There seems to be a growing recognition that the Taliban and other miscreants, to use the Pakistanis' own word for this, are a threat to the entire country, he said.