KARACHI - PAKISTAN'S parliament will hold a session next week to talk about United States missile attacks on militant targets in the north-west of the country, defence minister Ahmed Mukhtar said on Tuesday.

Washington has apparently stepped up missile strikes from unmanned drones against suspected Al-Qaeda and Taleban hideouts in tribal areas despite protests from Islamabad that such action violates international law and could deepen resentment of the US in the world's second-largest Islamic nation.

'We have summoned a session of the parliament on December 2 in which we'll discuss the violations (by the US drones) of Pakistan's territory, which is an important issue,' Mr Mukhtar told reporters at the country's international defence exhibition in the port city of Karachi.

'With the opposition we'll devise a joint strategy to tackle the issue.

Pakistan's security is much (more) important than any other thing,' Mr Mukhtar said.

There have been over 20 US missile attacks over the past few months against militant targets in the rugged tribal territory bordering Afghanistan.

Pakistan has officially protested to the United States that the strikes violate its sovereign territory, although some officials say there was a tacit understanding between the two militaries to allow such action.

The most recent missile attack, last Saturday by a US jet, killed the alleged Al-Qaeda mastermind of a 2006 transatlantic airplane bombing plot Rashid Rauf as well as an Egyptian Al-Qaeda operative, security officials said.

That attack came despite a warning by Taleban militants based in tribal territory that there would be reprisal attacks across Pakistan if there were more strikes by the US.

Terror network chief Osama bin Laden is widely believed to be hiding in the tribal territory, although there is no clear information about his whereabouts.

Mr Mukhtar told reporters that Al-Qaeda was 'the greatest danger for all of us' and that Pakistan was 'paying a huge price while fighting the war against terrorism.' 'At least 1,200 of our security personnel and more than 4,500 civilians have died in the war against terrorism (in Pakistan's troubled north-west),' Mr Mukhtar said. -- AFP