Pakistan reiterated that it will not let US forces hunt al-Qaeda and Taliban militants on its soil, after a news report said the administration of US President George W. Bush was considering expanding US military and intelligence operations into Pakistan's tribal regions.
The Foreign Ministry dismissed as "speculative" a story in the New York Times saying Bush's top security officials discussed a proposal on Friday to deploy US troops to pursue militants along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
"We are very clear. Nobody is going to be allowed to do anything here," said Major General Waheed Arshad, the top spokesman for Pakistan's army.
"The government has said it so many times," Arshad said on Sunday. "No foreign forces will be allowed to operate inside Pakistan."
The Pakistan-Afghanistan border area has long been considered a likely hiding place for al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his top deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, as well as an operating ground for tribal Taliban sympathizers.
In Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai's spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking comment on the report.
Bush's top security advisers -- including Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice -- had debated whether to expand the authority of the CIA and the military to "conduct far more aggressive covert operations in the tribal areas of Pakistan," the Times reported.
Recent reports indicate al-Qaeda and the Taliban are "intensifying efforts'' to destabilize Pakistan's government, the newspaper said.
It said Bush's security advisers' discussion on the proposal was part of an assessment of Washington's strategy following the Dec. 27 assassination of populist opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, a moderate pro-US politician who had vowed to fight Islamic extremists if she was elected in an upcoming parliamentary vote.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, a close US ally in the war against terror, has blamed Baitullah Mehsud, a tribal militant leader allegedly tied to al-Qaeda, for Bhutto's death.
Mehsud has reportedly denied involvement.
Meanwhile, suspected Islamic militants fatally shot eight tribal leaders involved in efforts to broker a ceasefire between security forces and insurgents in Pakistan's volatile northwest, authorities said.
The tribal leaders were killed in separate attacks late Sunday and early Monday in South Waziristan, a mountainous region close to Afghanistan where al-Qaeda and Taliban militants are known to operate, a security official and the military said in a statement.
The suspected insurgents killed three of the men in a market in Wana, the region's main town, while the other five were killed in attacks on their homes, the security official said. The men were scheduled to meet each other yesterday in Wana to discuss the negotiations, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to media.
Pakistan is an ally in the US war on terrorism, and its security forces have fought intense battles with militants in South Waziristan. Although the government has encouraged moderate tribal elders to broker a cease-fire in the region, there has been little sign of success.
Also yesterday, a suicide attacker detonated a bomb near a guest house where military officers were staying, wounding one person, authorities said.
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