MIR ALI, Pakistan: Pro-Taleban militants yesterday offered talks with the Pakistani government to end a stand-off between armed tribesmen and security forces following a series of fierce clashes near the Afghan border.

Chants of “Long live Islam”, “Long Live Jihad” and “Down with the USA” rang out at a jirga, or tribal council, attended by around 10,000 tribesmen in Mir Ali, a town in the semi-autonomous North Waziristan border region.

The offer of talks with President Pervez Musharraf’s government was delivered through a letter read to the jirga by a pro-Taliban cleric.

“We are ready to negotiate with Musharraf whenever he wants,” said Maulvi Abdul Rehman, reading from the letter.

The offer of talks was made on the condition that two Islamist politicians, Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman and Akram Khan Durrani, chief minister of North West Frontier Province, were involved.

Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt has been infested with Al Qaeda remnants and Taleban fighters who fled there after being ousted from Afghanistan in late 2001, and they still regularly sneak across the border to harry US and Afghan forces.

Musharraf, a key ally in the US-led war on terrorism, last month warned foreign militants hiding in the tribal region to leave Pakistan or face annihilation.

Pakistan has deployed thousands of troops on the border, and a campaign to flush out the militants switched to North Waziristan from South Waziristan early last year.

Security forces have used artillery and helicopter gunships against tribal militants in the past month and around 250 people, mostly tribesmen have been killed.