A suspected American missile strike hit a village well inside Pakistani territory today, killing six alleged militants, according to local officials, despite Pakistan's repeated demands for the United States to stop such attacks.

The US has enraged many Pakistanis since March by escalating missile attacks from pilotless drones on al-Qaeda and Taleban militants sheltering in tribal areas near the border of Afghanistan.

This was the first such attack beyond the lawless tribal areas, which have never been fully under government control, and is thus likely to provoke even more public and official outrage.

The two missiles destroyed a house in Indi Khel village in Bannu district in North West Frontier Province, about 25 miles from the Afghan border, local officials said.

Between four and six militants, including some from the former Soviet Central Asian state of Turkmenistan, were killed, according to Pakistani intelligence officials.

One security official said that among the dead was Abdullah Azam al-Saudi, a senior Arab member of al-Qaeda responsible for liaising with the Taleban around the Afghan border.

The US never gives official confirmation of such attacks, which are thought to be conducted by the CIA, but US officials say that they have a tacit agreement with Pakistani leaders to continue with the strikes.

Pakistani officials deny that and say the attacks constitute a violation of national sovereignty and have caused hundreds of civilian casualties as well as fuelling anti-American sentiment across the nation.

One large Islamist political party responded to today's attack by threatening to block the two routes through Pakistan that are used to take about 70 per cent of supplies to Nato forces in Afghanistan. "If these missiles attacks continue, then we will ask the people to create hurdles in the way of supplies for Nato," Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the head of Jamaat-e-Islami, told reporters.

The supply lines have not been blocked by public protests before, but the Pakistan Government halted Nato fuel deliveries briefly in September in protest at a ground assault on its tribal areas by US forces.

Militants have also staged a series of raids on Nato supply convoys this year, including one last week in which they stole two American Humvees and hundreds of tonnes of food aid.

US officials have often criticised Pakistan for not doing enough to combat the militants who have been sheltering in the tribal areas since fleeing Afghanistan after a US-led invasion toppled the Taleban government in late 2001.

That criticism has eased since September, when the Pakistani Army launched a big offensive on the tribal region of Bajaur, which it now says has killed some 1,500 alleged militants.

Pakistani forces have also stepped up border co-operation with Nato and Afghan forces over the past month under an initiative called Operation Lionheart, according to US officials.

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