ISLAMABAD - GROUND troops moved into Taleban-controlled areas on Friday and engaged in the first gunbattle of a new offensive in north-western Pakistan, as an aerial and artillery bombardment pounded other targets.

Officials said Friday's action did not represent the start of a full-scale operation in the tribal belt along the border with Afghanistan, but that most troops were now in place for when the orders came.

WASHINGTON - TOP US defence officials will urge China to support international pressure on North Korea in talks next week, a Pentagon official said on Friday.

The US military delegation led by Michele Flournoy, undersecretary for defence, is due to visit Beijing on Thursday and Friday in the first defence consultative talks between the two governments since December 2007, the official told reporters.

SRINAGAR (India) - A VEGETABLE seller was killed when a grenade hurled at a bus carrying Indian tourists missed its target in Indian-ruled Kashmir's main city of Srinagar, police said on Friday.

'Initial investigations reveal that the bus carrying tourists was the target (of militants),' a police officer said, requesting not to be named.