A major Arab Al-Qaeda operative was among six militants killed overnight in a suspected US missile strike in northwest Pakistan, a senior security official told AFP Wednesday.

Security sources identified the militant as Abdullah Azam Al-Saudi, a senior member of Osama bin Laden`s terror network who they said US intelligence officials had identified as the main link between Al-Qaeda`s senior command and Taliban networks in the Pakistani border region.

`He was the man coordinating between Al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders on this side of the border, and also involved in recruiting and training fighters,` an Islamabad-based senior security official told AFP.

The missile strike by a suspected US drone killed at least six people, and marked the first US missile attack outside of the rugged tribal regions which have become safe havens for militants linked to Taliban and Al-Qaeda, one Pakistani security official said.

The target was a house in northwestern Bannu district, on the border of the tribal territory, he said.

According to local officials, at least seven people were wounded.

`The strike overnight destroyed the house of a tribesman Sakhi Mohammad in the Bannu district,` a senior security official told AFP.

`At least two foreigners were among five killed.`

Pakistani officials use the term `foreigners` to describe Al-Qaeda militants.

Bannu police officer Alam Sheerani confirmed the attack but did not give details of casualties.

Al-Saudi is the second high-profile Al-Qaeda operative killed in recent US missile strikes near Pakistan`s border with Afghanistan.

Egyptian Al-Qaeda operative Abu Jihad al-Masri, described by the US as the terror network`s propaganda chief, was among several rebels killed in a November 1 missile strike in the North Waziristan region, known as a hub of Al-Qaeda and Taliban rebels.

At least five Taliban militants were also killed when Pakistani artillery pounded their hideouts through the night in a restive tribal region near the Afghanistan border, local administration official Mohammad Jamil told AFP.

The clashes took place in the Mamoon and Nawagai areas in Bajaur tribal regions where the military launched the operation against Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked militants in August.

`Troops fired artillery on militant hideouts and underground bunkers Tuesday night, killing five rebels and wounding three others,` Jamil said.

Islamabad says its operation in Bajaur refutes criticism by the US and Afghanistan that Pakistan is not doing enough to stop militants crossing the border to attack US and NATO troops in Afghanistan.

Washington has stepped up its missile strikes on the region since March, when a civilian government took over from General Pervez Musharraf, who turned Pakistan into a close US ally in the `war on terror`.

There has been a series of recent strikes against suspected Al-Qaeda and Taliban hideouts, all blamed on unmanned CIA drones, despite warnings from Pakistan that such attacks violate international law and could deepen resentment of the United States in the world`s second-largest Islamic nation.

But the Washington Post newspaper reported early this week that the US and Pakistani governments had reached a tacit agreement on Predator strikes on Pakistani territory, under which Islamabad allows them while continuing to complain about them and Washington never acknowledges them.

President Asif Ali Zardari recently promised zero tolerance against violations of his country`s sovereignty.

He told the new US commander for Iraq and Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, early this month that the attacks were `counterproductive` and could harm the battle for hearts and minds here.

Pakistan`s army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, who left for Brussels Tuesday to participate in a meeting of NATO defence chiefs, will hold talks with senior alliance officials about US missile strikes on Pakistani soil.