Pakistan asked the United States Friday to reconsider missile strikes on its territory, hours before US President Barack Obama was to unveil a new strategy to defeat Al-Qaeda in south Asia.
"It is important that the US administration factors this in (regarding) its operational policy," foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said in a statement.
"Pakistan's concerns in this regard have been conveyed to the US government at the highest level."
Basit reiterated the government's position that "drone attacks on our territory are a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty and definitely counter-productive."
Obama was Friday to announce a new strategy to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat" Al-Qaeda in safe havens in Afghanistan and Pakistan and deploy an extra 4,000 military trainers.
US missile strikes anger many across nuclear-armed Pakistan and the government has warned that they risk a domestic blacklash in a country where more than 1,600 people have died in extremist bombings in less than two years.
More than 35 such strikes have killed more than 340 people since August 2008, shortly before President Asif Ali Zardari was elected. A suspected US strike Wednesday killed up to seven alleged militants in a Taliban stronghold.
The US military as a rule does not confirm drone attacks but the armed forces and the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operating in neighbouring Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy the aircraft in the region.
Obama will formally announce a new strategy to members of the military and development workers who will serve in the two nations in coming months, as well as foreign ambassadors, at the White House on Friday.
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