Pakistan "cannot accept any action within our country" such as the US missile attack apparently aimed at al-Qaida's No 2 leader that killed civilians in a border village, the country's prime minister said yesterday.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, however, stressed that Pakistan's relationship with the United States remained important and reiterated he was pressing ahead with an official visit to Washington. He was due to depart Pakistan later yesterday.

He made the comments surrounding the purported CIA strike targeting Ayman al-Zawahri in a joint press conference with former US President George H.W. Bush, who is currently touring Pakistan as the UN secretary-general's special envoy for the relief effort in areas affected by October's monster earthquake.

"Pakistan has committed to fighting terrorism but naturally we cannot accept any action within our country which results in what happened over the weekend," Aziz said.

"The relationship with the US is important, it is growing," Aziz said. "But at the same time such actions cannot be condoned."

Bush said he hoped Pakistanis would continue to see Washington as a helper despite civilian deaths in the air strike.

Bush was asked in Islamabad if he thought the deaths in Friday's strike, which have dented some of the goodwill generated by the prominent US earthquake relief role, showed shortcomings in the US-led war on terrorism.

"No I don't," the father of President George W. Bush, said, while adding it was for others involved in the war to comment. "I am here as a representative of the (UN) secretary-general to try to help with the relief and reconstruction effort.

"I think the feeling generally is that the US has been trying to help the people of Pakistan and I hope that's what prevails."

President Pervez Musharraf has made little comment on the furore caused by the attack so far. He was scheduled to address the nation on state television on Tuesday evening (local time), officials said.

Friday's pre-dawn attack happened on the Pakistani village of Damadola, near the Afghan border. The Pakistan Government is a top ally of the United States in the war on terror, but says it doesn't allow US forces to hunt down or attack militants on its territory.

Pakistanis went to streets

Many in this nation of 150 million people oppose the government's backing of the United States, and there is increasing frustration over a recent series of suspected US attacks along the porous and ill-defined frontier aimed at militants.

Thousands of Pakistanis took to the streets over the weekend, chanting "Death to America."

CIA Intelligence officials said the strike targeted al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant. The Egyptian-born al-Zawahri had been invited to dinner in the town, but never showed.

Instead, he sent some aides to the dinner, and investigators were trying to determine whether they had been in any of the three houses that were destroyed in the missile strike, which killed at least 17 people, including women and children.

"My trip to the US is there on schedule because we want to engage on many issues, including how we fight terrorism, and this incident will also be discussed," Aziz said at a joint news conference with the former US president.

Earlier in the day, Pakistan's cabinet condemned the loss of life, and Aziz, while presiding over the meeting, said that he would take up the matter with US President George W. Bush, when he meets with him later this month.

Source: China Daily