Washington, Aug. 4 : Bowing to mounting pressure from the Bush Administration, the Pakistan Government has reportedly agreed to deploy a Pakistani Special Service Group (SSG) unit, trained by Americans, in the Tribal Areas bordering Afghanistan.

The Daily Times quoted a senior Pakistani official as saying that the deployment would meet Washington’s longstanding demand for immediate action in the Tribal Areas, while at the same time ensure the sanctity of Pakistan’s sovereignty.

Lahore, Aug. 4: Stating that extremists continue to be trained in Pakistan’s remote and often volatile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), U. S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has categorically stated that peace talks with the militants have failed, and therefore, advocated joint Pakistan-United States military operations to improve the deteriorating situation there.

Islamabad, Aug 3 : Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has discontinued, may be temporarily, an old practice of meeting President Pervez Musharraf before and after every foreign visit.

“It is not required under the rules that the premier should meet the President every time he embarks on or comes back from a foreign visit,” a senior official said.

Islamabad, Aug 3 : The make-or-break meeting between PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif to decide the fate of the four-month-old ruling coalition will take place on Tuesday.

The meeting between the two leaders would be held at the Zardari House that will decide whether the PML-N would sit on the opposition benches or rejoin the cabinet if the PPP agrees to the demand for the restoration of the deposed judges under the Murree Declaration.

Islamabad, Aug 3 : Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Taliban has denied a US television report that al-Qaeda’s deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri may have been wounded or killed in a missile strike this week.

The Pakistani military said that it had no information on the report by US, which said it had obtained an intercepted letter from a Taliban commander urgently requesting a doctor to treat Zawahiri.

“This is totally baseless. The claim is rubbish, there is no truth in this,” Maulvi Omar, a spokesman for Tehreek-e-Taliban (Taliban Movement), told reporters.

Islamabad, Aug 3 : The Bush Administration is demanding a comprehensive revamp of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) before Washington resumes full intelligence cooperation with Pakistan, a high-level European defence official in Islamabad has said.

US military, for the past four months, has routinely withheld advanced information from Pakistani authorities on attacks carried out in tribal areas targeting al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects, for the fear of information getting leaked to militants, the official added.