LAHORE, July 21: Pakistan has informed the Western countries that it is trying to control cross-border movement of militants in tribal areas so that no country gets an excuse to go for direct strikes.

Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, talking to reporters at his residence here on Saturday, said the government wanted to deal with the situation through political means, including adherence to the peace accord.

He said although the extremists had unilaterally withdrawn from the agreement, the NWFP governor was still doing his best to deal with the situation in a peaceful manner.

The minister claimed the army had been sent to the tribal areas in an attempt to save the accord and avoid ‘collateral damage’. Asked about the possibility of direct US attacks, he said the army wanted to avoid the killings and it was because of its careful planning that the casualty ratio between the two sides was much less than the one being witnessed in Iraq.

He said 500 troops had been killed against 800 militants, which was much less than 1:20 or 1:100 ratio monitored in Iraq. In tribal areas, he said, hand-to-hand combat was going on and the government was not using artillery.

Mr Kasuri said the Western countries were alleging that militants were crossing into Afghanistan from the tribal areas. The government, he said, had informed them that it was trying to stop such activities.