Pakistan maintains it has not made a deal with the US allowing it to fire missiles at militant hide-outs after a newspaper quoted the new president as suggesting otherwise.
President Asif Ali Zardari told The Wall Street Journal India had never been a threat to his country, while describing Islamist militant groups in the disputed Kashmir region as terrorists.
The reported comments could undermine Mr Zardari one month into his presidency, especially with Pakistan's powerful military. The Pakistani Army traditionally views India as enemy No1 and has denied making any agreement with the US on cross-border operations.
Mr Zardari is paraphrased in the newspaper as saying the United States has been carrying out missile strikes on Pakistani soil with his Government's consent.''We have an understanding, in the sense that we're going after an enemy together,'' he is quoted as having said.
Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for Mr Zardari, said the journalist had read too much into Mr Zardari's quote and the president was talking generally about fighting terrorism. ''The official position is that we do not allow foreign incursions into Pakistani territory,'' Mr Babar said.
The US has long carried out missile strikes against suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban hide-outs in North West Frontier Province, but a recent surge in attacks has prompted official Pakistani condemnation. Analysts have suggested that the previous government, led by Pervez Musharraf, had some form of agreement with the US to allow the unpopular attacks.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars, two of them over the status of Kashmir, a region claimed by both countries. Pakistan often refers to separatist rebels in Kashmir as ''freedom fighters'', but denies Indian allegations that it funds and trains them.
Mr Babar said Mr Zardari meant that ''foreign jihadi militants'' who had ''sneaked into Kashmir'' should be condemned as terrorists.
The Taliban are furious about the latest apparent US missile strike in Pakistan, indicating that a senior militant may be among two dozen people killed.
The US has ramped up cross-border strikes that target alleged al-Qaeda and Taliban hide-outs in Pakistan's tribal regions bordering Afghanistan. Pakistani leaders have often condemned such attacks as violations of their country's sovereignty. In the case of Friday's alleged American strike in the North Waziristan tribal region, government officials have been notably quiet. But the Taliban were reportedly responding with fury.
Pakistan's chief army spokesman, Major-General Athar Abbas, said yesterday at least 20 people had died, eight of them foreign militants. A US military spokesman in Afghanistan did not deny US involvement. AP