Pakistan declares ceasefire with al-Qaida fighters

PAKISTAN'S army declared a ceasefire yesterday with suspected al-Qaida fighters near the Afghan border to allow tribal elders to try to negotiate the militants' surrender.

The army says hundreds of al-Qaida suspects and their Pakistani tribal allies are surrounded in the desolate mountains but added fighting had subsided yesterday after a week of clashes.

Last week officials said they thought al-Qaida number two Ayman al-Zawahri might be among those surrounded but the army has dismissed those reports as "conjecture".

"The government has issued 22 passes to a group of tribal elders so that they can go inside the cordoned area," regional security chief said Brigadier Mahmood Shah. "They will go there (today) with a white flag. An ambulance will also go along with them to collect the bodies," he said.

"The local tribesmen, who accused of harbouring foreign militants must be handed over to the government immediately. And all foreign militants must surrender, there is no other option."

Brig Shah said there was a temporary ceasefire in operation, with no helicopter gunships or heavy artillery being used. "Until they fire on us we will not fire on them," he said.

The army has declined to give casualty figures although local officials have said around 30 soldiers and almost as many militants may have been killed since Tuesday.

Officials said 13 civilians were killed on Saturday when their vehicles were fired on by helicopter gunships, and two Chechen militants were killed on Sunday after trying to break through an army cordon. The battle, involving 5,000 troops, is the biggest Pakistan has ever waged in its semi-autonomous tribal border lands and is part of a major push to sweep foreign militants from the region and catch al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden.