Two Pakistani soldiers killed in roadside blast

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, Aug 16 (Reuters) A roadside blast killed two Pakistani soldiers and wounded four today in the North Waziristan region near the Afghan border, intelligence officials said.

Violence has surged in North Waziristan since last month, when militants said they were abandoning a 10-month-old pact that the government had hoped would end attacks on security forces and cross-border raids on foreign troops in Afghanistan.

The soldiers were travelling in a convoy when one of their vehicles was blown up near the town of Mir Ali, the officials said.

''It appears to have been a remote-controlled bomb,'' said an intelligence official who declined to be identified.

Many al Qaeda and Taliban members took refuge in Waziristan and other remote, rugged regions on the Pakistani side of the Afghan border after US and Afghan opposition forces defeated the Taliban government in Afghanistan in late 2001.

Pakistan has battled the militants and tried to isolate foreign al Qaeda members with deals aimed at strengthening traditional ethic Pashtun tribal power structures.

But US security officials say North Waziristan and other border regions remain hotbed of militancy where al Qaeda and the Taliban plot violence.

Militants launched a wave of attacks across the country, mainly on soldiers and policemen, after an army assault on Islamabad's Red Mosque, a militant stronghold, last month.

REUTERS SV KP1423