Islamabad - Pakistani troops on Saturday killed up to 10 Islamic militants in fresh clashes with Taliban extremists along the Afghan border, a security official said.

Helicopter gunships and artillery fire pounded militants' positions in the Inayat Kaley, Rashkai, and Loi Sum areas of Bajaur district, a known sanctuary of Taliban and al-Qaeda militants launching crossborder raids on international forces in Afghanistan.

"Between eight and 10 miscreants have died and numerous were injured in the operation during which several militants' hideouts were destroyed," said a local security official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Islamabad, Sept 13 : Commenting on fresh IAEA reports of Pakistan’s nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan’s involvement in transferring sensitive nuclear technology to Libya the Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Sadiq said that there is nothing new in the report.

While referring to the provision of nuclear equipment and related design, he said it does not reveal any new information.

"It essentially summarises the results of the IAEA verification activities in Libya and provides an overview of Libya''''s past nuclear programme," said Sadiq, quoted The News.

Islamabad, Sep 13 : Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Lou chi Hoi is pressing the Pakistani Government to make efforts for the release of two kidnapped Chinese engineers after the abductors said they would exchange the engineers for 15 Taliban militants.

In a press statement issued on Friday, the Chinese Embassy urged the government to hold peaceful negotiations with the abductors.

Foreign Office Spokesman Muhammad Sadiq said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was in constant contact with the Chinese Embassy.

He also said that the Interior Ministry was seeking a peaceful solution to the issue and had assured them that the engineers would be recovered soon.

Islamabad, Sept. 13: Pakistan Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has said that his government can and will take up the issue of unilateral American missile strikes with the Bush administration, but ruled out the possibility of engaging the United States in a war.

"We can take up the matter of unilateral strikes in Pakistan at diplomatic level, but cannot wage war," Gilani told newsmen at Prime Minister Secretariat on Friday after inaugurating the country's first plant for manufacturing of auto disposable syringes.

New York, Sep 13 : American educated Pakistani neuroscientist and “the most significant” US capture in the fight against terrorism in five years, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, incarcerated in a New York prison, has been diagnosed with a chronic depressive-type psychosis, according to court documents.

Siddiqui, who is accused of attempted murder of American soldiers in Afghanistan, disappeared mysteriously in Pakistan in 2003.

Islamabad, Sep 13 : Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has stressed that there is a need for both Islamabad and New Delhi to narrow their differences on Kashmir, and added that Kashmiris must be part of the dialogue process.

“We believe that Kashmiris should be an integral component of the ongoing peace process, as they are the primary stakeholders,” Gilani said.

Gilani said the peace process between Pakistan and India had raised the level of people’s expectations, and should become a symbol of peace, tranquility and fraternity in South Asia.