Pakistan denies accord with U.S. on drone attacks

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan denied on Monday a U.S. media report that it had given tacit approval to the United States to carry out missile strikes by pilotless drones against al Qaeda and Taliban targets on its soil.

The Washington Post on Sunday cited unidentified Pakistani and U.S. officials as saying that the two countries agreed in September on a don't-ask-don't-tell policy that allowed Predator aircraft to attack militants in the Pakistani border region with Afghanistan.

But Pakistani ministers said there was no such agreement.

"There is no understanding. There is no tacit understanding," Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told parliament.

Information Minister Sherry Rehman rejected the report as "cooked up."

"There is absolutely no question of government entering into such agreement that would allow bombardment of its own people."

Relations between the United States and its major ally in the war against al Qaeda and the Taliban have become more strained since U.S. forces launched a ground attack against militants in the Pakistani tribal region on the border with Afghanistan in September.

Although the United States has refrained from sending ground troops into Pakistani territory since the September 3 incursion, its Predators have carried out nearly 20 missile strikes since then, the latest in the past week in which 12 people, including five foreign militants, were killed.

The Washington Post said the agreement between Pakistan and the United States on drone attacks coincided with the suspension of U.S. ground assaults into Pakistan.

Under the deal, the Post said the U.S. government would refuse to publicly acknowledge the attacks while Pakistan would continue to complain noisily about the politically sensitive strikes.

Pakistani officials say the U.S. strikes will incite public anger against the United States in the country where the U.S.-led war on terrorism is very unpopular.

(Reporting by Zeeshan Haider; Editing by Giles Elgood)