Pro-Taliban Pakistani tribals offer Musharraf talks

MIR ALI, Pakistan, Apr 10 (Reuters) Pro-Taliban militants today offered talks with the Pakistani government to end a stand-off between armed tribesmen and security forces following a series of fierce clashes near the Afghan border.

Chants of ''Long live Islam'', ''Long Live Jihad'' and ''Down with the USA'' rang out at a jirga, or tribal council, attended by around 10,000 tribesmen in Mir Ali, a town in the semi-autonomous North Waziristan border region.

The offer of talks with President Pervez Musharraf's government was delivered through a letter read to the jirga by a pro-Taliban cleric.

''We are ready to negotiate with Musharraf whenever he wants,'' said Maulvi Abdul Rehman, reading from the letter.

The offer of talks was made on the condition that two Islamist politicians, Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman and Akram Khan Durrani, chief minister of North West Frontier Province, were involved.

Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt has been infested with al Qaeda remnants and Taliban fighters who fled there after being ousted from Afghanistan in late 2001, and they still regularly sneak across the border to harry US and Afghan forces.

Musharraf, a key ally in the US-led war on terrorism, last month warned foreign militants hiding in the tribal region to leave Pakistan or face annihilation.

Pakistan has deployed thousands of troops on the border, and a campaign to flush out the militants switched to North Waziristan from South Waziristan early last year.

Security forces have used artillery and helicopter gunships against tribal militants in the past month and around 250 people, mostly tribesmen have been killed.

Most of the tribesmen attending the jirga bore arms in defiance of a recent ban by the authorities. Pashtun tribes regard carrying weapons as part of their cultural identity.

The letter also contained a threat to tribesmen who failed to strictly observe the militants' interpretation of Islamic laws.

''If they live according to Shariah (Islamic law), it is fine but if they ignore it, they will be responsible for any sort of action by us,'' it said.

There were more pleas heard at today's jirga for the security forces to confine their deployment to the immediate border area and end operations inside the tribal lands.

''We want the Army and Frontier Corps to go back to border or barracks as their presence has worsened the situation and made our lives difficult,'' Malik Khan Umar Jan, a tribal chief, said.

Unidentified gunmen shot dead two men in a truck delivering water supplies to the army near Miranshah, North Waziristan's main town, early today, according to intelligence officials.

REUTERS SHR PM1745