SPINKAI, Pakistan • A starving donkey is the only sign of life in this Pakistani tribal village, where the army has bulldozed most shops and houses as a collective punishment for harbouring Taliban militants.

Amid US concerns about talks between the new government and the rebels, the Pakistani military flew in reporters to show how it has sealed off the main access points to a nearby region where Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud is based.

On one of the peaks which loom over Spinkai, Brigadier Ali Abbas tells how the 2,000 men of his brigade surrounded some 600 Taliban rebels guarding access to Mehsud's den in January.

To the north and west, the other access points to Mehsud territory in the heart of the South Waziristan tribal area were retaken after several months by the army, which says it first emptied the region of civilians.

"We have made a vacuum around Mehsud territory, they are encircled, blocked," army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told journalists. "With our operation, we forced them to sit at the negotiating table."

In January, the army launched an offensive in the region under pressure from Washington, which regards the tribal belt as a haven for Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network, backed by its Taliban allies.

Mehsud himself has been accused by the previous Pakistani government and the US Central Intelligence Agency of masterminding the assassination in December of former premier Benazir Bhutto. Apart from the army there is not a soul left in the surrounding villages. The fields, which stretch out along an almost dry riverbed, have not been seeded this year and several animals search for rare tufts of vegetation.

But unlike previous operations which have often left hundreds of militants and civilians and dozens of troops dead, this time the casualties were minimal. Ali Abbas said that of around 600 Islamist fighters holed up here his men killed only six and captured 25. The rest fled, probably into Mehsud territory.