ISLAMABAD - PAKISTAN suspended fighting in the volatile northwest on Monday for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, allowing some of the 300,000 people displaced by airstrikes and gunbattles to pack up belongings and return to their shattered homes.

The military warned, however, that any provocations in the Bajur tribal region, a rumored hide-out of Osama bin Laden near the border with Afghanistan, would bring immediate retaliation.

While Taliban spokesman Maulvi Umar welcomed the lull in fighting, he said militants would not lay down their arms as demanded, raising concerns they could use the next month to regroup.

Pakistan's five-month-old government initially held peace talks with Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants living in mountainous border regions - something Pervez Musharraf briefly tried as well before he was forced to resign as president - but those efforts met with little success.

It has since turned to force, pounding suspected hideouts with helicopter gunships and fighter jets.

Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said three weeks of fighting in Bajur had killed more than 560 militants and sent more than 300,000 people, mostly women and children, fleeing to government relief camps.

Many, barely scraping by, said they could not afford to make the journey home for Ramadan and would instead remain with their families in sweltering, mosquito-infested tents. Others started gathering up their few belongings Monday and piling into buses and pickup trucks.

'God knows what will happen once we get there,' said Mr Bakhsh Ali Khan, who was heading with his wife and five children to their home in Pashat, an area of Bajur. 'But we're living in shambles here. Our family has been separated, we do not have enough food, proper clothing or beds.'

American officials have pressed Pakistan to crack down on militants in its tribal regions, fearing Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked fighters involved in attacks on US and Nato forces in Afghanistan use those border areas as safe zones.

The US is suspected of launching a series of missile strikes targeting alleged militant compounds along Pakistan's mountainous frontier, including one Sunday that left four dead.

Ramadan is expected to officially begin on Tuesday or Wednesday in Pakistan, though the timing depends on the appearance of the new moon.

Defence analyst Talat Masood said the suspension of military operations in Bajur risked squandering any gains made by security forces so far.

'Definitely it will give a fair chance to the militants to regroup, consolidate their strength and stage a come back,' he said. 'This has happened in the past.'

The tribal region has been the primary focus of military operations against insurgents, though there have also been clashes in the northwestern Swat Valley, a formerly popular tourist resort.

It was not immediately clear whether authorities were also suspending fighting there, but Taliban militants said, in any case, they intended to keep up their activities.

'This is not a war, but jihad, and this is our faith that rewards for good deeds and that is multiplied during the holy month,' said Muslim Khan, a Taliban spokesman in Swat.

The numbers and scope of the operations have been almost impossible to confirm because of the remote, dangerous nature of the regions. The Pakistani Taliban have claimed responsibility for a string of recent suicide attacks, calling them revenge for the offensives.

As the crackdown has proceeded, Pakistan's government has become increasingly embroiled in political turbulence.

A short-lived ruling coalition forced Mr Musharraf - the longtime US ally in the war on terror - to quit the presidency on August 18.

The coalition then rapidly fell apart over disputes about his successor and how to reinstate judges he fired last year.

Asif Ali Zardari, the head of the main ruling Pakistan People's Party and the widower of slain ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, is considered the favorite to win lawmakers' votes for the presidency on Sept. 6.

The PPP is considered generally in line with US goals in fighting extremists, but because of deep anti-American sentiment in Pakistan, it has to tread carefully.

Many Pakistanis blame the violence in their country on Mr Musharraf's decision to support the US. -- AP

AP-TK-01-09-08 1012GMT