Five Taliban militants and a soldier were killed Friday in clashes sparked by an ambush on a paramilitary convoy in a northwestern Pakistani town, police said.

Militants ambushed a security forces convoy near Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, where the Taliban have recently stepped up attacks, police official Marjan Ali told AFP.

Pakistani troops and police backed by helicopter gunships and artillery launched a retaliatory strike after one soldier was killed and another wounded in the ambush.

`Five militants and a security forces personnel were killed in the fighting, which lasted for more than four hours,` Ali said.

The clashes took place in a region that borders Mohmand, one of seven lawless tribal areas bordering Afghanistan where Al-Qaeda linked Taliban militants are active.

Ali said security forces and police in the region also captured a Taliban centre and destroyed a militant hide-out in a joint operation.

Troops used artillery against militants as helicopter gunships pounded their hide-outs, he said.

The operation came after a suicide bomber on Wednesday rammed his explosive-filled van into a military camp, killing three soldiers.

Pakistan`s tribal belt became a safe haven for hundreds of extremists who fled Afghanistan after the US-led toppling of the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001 and have since set up training camps.

The Pakistani military says more than 1,500 rebels have been killed while hundreds more militants were captured since the military launched an operation in Bajaur tribal district in August.