ISLAMABAD - WARPLANES and helicopter gunships pounded suspected militant positions in Pakistan's troubled north-west on Sunday, killing 11 Taleban fighters, intelligence officials said.

Elsewhere in the volatile north-west region, one government soldier was killed when insurgents attacked a pair of military outposts near Wana in South Waziristan with rockets, missiles and small arms shortly after morning prayers, the military said.

Intelligence officials said earlier that two soldiers had died in the assault.

Violence has spiked this month in South Waziristan, a rugged tribal area along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, as the government prepares for an apparent offensive there aimed at eliminating Mehsud and his militants.

The focus on South Waziristan comes as a two-month-old campaign to oust Mehsud-allied Taleban militants from the Swat Valley region, also in the north-west, wraps up. Some 2 million residents have been displaced by the fighting in Swat.

Islamabad has set its sites on the Taleban leader in recent weeks, and on Sunday the government published an announcement in two national newspapers offering a 50 million rupee reward for Mehsud, who has been blamed for a string of suicide attacks across the country that have killed more than 100 people in the past month. Smaller amounts were offered for information on his top lieutenants.

The US State Department has already authorised a reward of up to US$5 million for the Taleban leader.

Pakistan's military also kept up its bombing campaign in the region. Jet fighters struck the village of Kani Guram overnight, leaving eight militants dead, while helicopter gunships hit positions in Shah Alam and Raghhzai, killing three more fighters, the intelligence officials told The Associated Press.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to disclose the information. -- AP