The decision was made on the first day of the two-day meeting of Pakistan’s top military commanders to discuss the US coalition’s ground and air assault in Waziristan region which killed dozens of civilians.

Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani chaired the meeting which began in Rawalpindi on Thursday at the Army General Headquarters.

Pakistan’s military commanders expressed their determination to defend the country’s borders without allowing any external forces to conduct operations inside the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, sources said.

A senior official said the military commanders also discussed the implications of the American attacks inside Pakistan and took stock of the public feeling.

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However, Hizbullah has retained its weapons and Israel routinely violates Lebanese airspace. The Jewish state also continues to occupy the Lebanese side of the border village of Ghajar and the Shebaa Farms, which Lebanon claims as its own. Israel and the UN, meanwhile, have said that the Farms are Syrian.

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An intensifying insurgency in Afghanistan has brought more pressure on Pakistan to go after militants operating out of sanctuaries in remote enclaves on its side of the border. It has also led to a sharp increase in U.S. strikes on militants in Pakistan.

The new government in Islamabad says it is committed to the campaign against militancy, launched after the September 11 attacks seven years ago, but bans incursions by U.S. troops.

In the latest fighting in the Bajaur region, Pakistani security forces backed by helicopter gunships killed 20 militants in an attack on a militant stronghold in the village of Rashkai that began on Wednesday, security officials said.

“We’ve almost taken control of the area. Our troops are advancing and the operation is likely to be finished today,” said an official who declined to be identified.

A military official said four soldiers were also killed and some Arabs were among the dead militants.

Militants in Bajaur, where some analysts believed top al Qaeda leaders have been hiding, frequently cross into Afghanistan to attack Western troops and government forces there.

Violence in Afghanistan has soared over the past two years as al Qaeda and Taliban fighters have regrouped and the U.S. military said on Wednesday it was not winning there and would revise its strategy to combat militant havens in Pakistan.

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The announcement came as Pakistan’s military resumed its battle against Taliban militants in its tribal region, two army spokesmen said. More than 20 militants and four security forces were killed in Monday’s fighting in Bajaur Agency, they said.

The anti-Taliban operation was initiated August 6 but was suspended September 1 for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, with the exception that security forces would respond if attacked.

A ground incursion last week by U.S. forces into Pakistan strained relations between the two countries. Pakistan summoned the U.S. ambassador in Islamabad to complain about the incident, which it said killed 15 civilians.

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