Four militants killed in Pakistani clash

ISLAMABAD, May 28 (Reuters) Pakistani police killed four pro-Taliban militants in a gun battle in a northwestern town today, police said.

The clash erupted in Bannu town in North West Frontier Province (NWFP), a gateway to the volatile North Waziristan tribal region on the Afghan border.

''The shootout lasted for three hours. Four militants have been killed and two policemen have been injured. One is in critical condition,'' said Mazhar-ul-Haq Kakakheil, a senior police official in Bannu.

Violence has been increasing in parts of NWFP over the past year or so, evidence, some analysts say, of ''Talibanisation'', or the spread of militant influence from remote tribal regions on the Afghan border to more developed, populous areas.

Pakistan's tribal belt along the Afghan border is a hotbed of support for al Qaeda and the Taliban, many of whom took refuge in the lawless area after US-led forces routed a Taliban government in Afghanistan in 2001.

Also today, a paramilitary soldier was killed and one wounded when militants attacked their vehicle car near the NWFP town of Tank, 80 km southwest of Bannu, a member of the paramilitary force said.

REUTERS GL ND1528