PESHAWAR, September 8, 2008 (AFP) - At least 10 militants were killed in clashes with troops who pounded their suspected hideouts in Pakistan's troubled northwestern Swat valley, the military said Monday.

Intense fighting between soldiers and militants erupted in Kabal district late Sunday and continued into the early hours of Monday, said military spokesman Colonel Nadeem Anwar.

Troops used artillery and mortar shells to target suspected hideouts of fighters loyal to radical pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah, he said.

'We have confirmation that at least 10 militants were killed,' Anwar said, adding that the final toll may be higher.

There were no military casualties, he said.

The clashes erupted after militants hurled a grenade into a gathering of troops on a golf course in Kabal, wounding two soldiers.

Fazlullah launched a violent campaign to enforce harsh Islamic Sharia law in the region last year. Since then, the former popular tourist destination has been rocked by fierce clashes.

Pakistan's army has intensified its campaign against Fazlullah's fighters in recent weeks, killing hundreds of them.

Elsewhere, soldiers on Monday foiled a suicide bomb attempt on a military convoy in the northwestern garrison town of Nowshera, arresting the would-be attacker, the military said in a statement.

Bomb disposal experts defused the 10-15 kilogrammes (about 20-30 pounds) of explosives in the man's 'suicide' jacket, the statement said.

Former president Pervez Musharraf was a key ally of the United States in its efforts to combat militancy, particularly in the tribal area near Afghanistan, which Washington says is being used as a launch pad for rebel attacks on US-led forces across the border.

But Pakistan's fragile coalition government has been struggling to tackle the violence that has seen nearly 1,200 people killed in bombings and suicide attacks across the country in the past year.

President-elect Asif Ali Zardari, who is to be sworn in on Tuesday, has said he will make the fight against Islamic militancy one of his top priorities.

Zardari is the widower of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in a gun and suicide attack at an election rally in December.