President Barack Obama’s special envoy to Pakistan has praised the country’s “very significant” progress in taking back key territory from the Taliban and promised more weapons for the fight against extremists close to the Afghan border.

Taliban militants attacked an army convoy today in a north-western region covered by an increasingly fragile peace pact, killing one soldier and dealing another blow to an agreement seen in the West as a capitulation to extremists.

Pakistan’s army said today that troops sent to counter a Taliban push towards the capital have captured a key town.

Taliban militants extended their grip in north-western Pakistan, pushing out from a valley where the government has agreed to impose Islamic law and patrolling villages as close as 60 miles from the capital.