Pakistan tells US of 'rage' over NATO attack

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Pakistan on Sunday conveyed its 'rage' to the United States over cross-border NATO air strikes that killed 24 soldiers, as it ordered a full-scale review of its frosty alliance with the US and NATO.

The United States, which depends on Pakistan as a vital life-line to supply 130,000 foreign troops fighting in landlocked Afghanistan, on Sunday scrambled to salvage the alliance, backing a full inquiry and expressing condolences.

Key questions remain about exactly what happened in the early hours of Saturday in Pakistan's tribal district of Mohmand, where Pakistan says two border posts were fired upon 'unprovoked'.

Investigators are likely to look at whether Afghan and American troops operating on the Afghan side of the border could have been fired upon first - whether by insurgents or Pakistani military.

On Sunday, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar telephoned US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and conveyed a 'deep sense of rage' as the military organised a joint funeral for the 24 troops who died.

Khar said attacks on military outposts were 'totally unacceptable' as they contravened international law and violated Pakistani sovereignty - inflaming US-Pakistani relations still reeling from the May killing of Osama bin Laden.

She spoke to Clinton to inform her of decisions taken at an emergency meeting of cabinet ministers and military chiefs, which has seen Pakistan seal its Afghan border to NATO supply trucks and order a review of relations.

"The foreign minister conveyed to the secretary of state, the deep sense of rage felt across Pakistan at the senseless loss of 24 soldiers due to the NATO/ISAF attack on the Pakistani post," the foreign ministry said.

"They demonstrate complete disregard for international law and human life, and are in stark violation of Pakistani sovereignty," Khar said.

"This negates the progress made by the two countries on improving relations and forces Pakistan to revisit the terms of engagement," she added.

US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Clinton issued a joint statement from Washington, offering their 'deepest condolences' and backing 'NATO's intention to investigate immediately'.

They stressed the importance of the US-Pakistani partnership and pledged to remain in close contact with Pakistan 'through this challenging time'.

Pakistan also said NATO member Turkey will ask for an impartial inquiry into the attacks.

Funerals were held in Sunday amid unusually tight security in the northwestern city of Peshawar. Pakistan's army chief Ashfaq Kayani, who had hosted the US commander in Afghanistan for talks on border coordination only one day before the attack, led the mourners in funeral prayers at the northwest's military headquarters.

The soldiers' coffins were draped in the national flag and were to be airlifted to home towns for burial.

Pakistan on Saturday sealed its border with Afghanistan to NATO supplies - holding up convoys at the Torkham and Chaman crossings on the main overland US supply line into landlocked Afghanistan from the Arabian Sea port of Karachi.

In September 2010, Pakistan shut the main land route for NATO supplies at Torkham for 11 days after accusing NATO of killing three Pakistani troops.

The border was reopened after the United States formally apologised.

Pakistan has also ordered the United States to leave the Shamsi air base within 15 days, despite reports American personnel had already the facility reportedly used as a hub for US drone strikes on militants in Pakistan.

It also said the government would 'undertake a complete review of all programmes, activities and cooperative arrangements with US/NATO/ISAF, including diplomatic, political, military and intelligence'.

The US-led NATO force in Afghanistan has admitted it is 'highly likely' that the force's aircraft caused the deaths before dawn on Saturday,

NATO troops frequently carry out operations against Taliban insurgents close to the border with Pakistan, which in many places is unmarked, although the extent to which those operations are coordinated with Pakistan is unclear.

Pakistan, battling its own Taliban insurgency in the northwest, is dependent on billions of dollars in US aid.

Relations between Pakistan and the United States have been in crisis since American troops killed bin Laden near the capital without prior warning and after a CIA contractor killed two Pakistanis in Lahore in January.