There were no reported high-value targets killed in the strike at Kahisur village in North Waziristan, a known hub of Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants.

A suspected drone slammed two missiles into a compound, where militants were staying and where they kept an ammunition dump, a security official said.

The official put the death toll at 25, raising the figure from 10 militants who were reported killed earlier on Saturday.

"It was a drone strike on a compound where militants were staying," another security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The compound was located in Khaisur village, 30 kilometres (18 miles) east of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan tribal region.

Other intelligence officials put the death toll as high as 28, saying the dead were mostly local militants from a local Wazir tribe who had been preparing to leave for neighbouring Afghanistan to carry out attacks.

One of those officials said four foreigners -- a term used in Pakistan to refer to suspected Al-Qaeda militants -- were among the dead but said the bodies of most of those killed were burnt beyond recognition.

It was the third suspected US strike since last Saturday. Eight militants were killed in a strike on Tuesday in South Waziristan and six others in the same semi-autonomous tribal area last Saturday.

The United States has adopted a new strategy to defeat Islamist extremists, putting Pakistan at the heart of the fight against Al-Qaeda and sending an extra 21,000 US troops to neighbouring Afghanistan to battle the Taliban.

Pakistan publicly opposes drone attacks, saying they violate its territorial sovereignty and deepen resentment among the populace. Since August 2008, more than 40 such strikes have killed around 420 people.

The US military does not, as a rule, confirm drone attacks, but its armed forces and the Central Intelligence Agency operating in Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy drones in the region.

Pakistan has called for military equipment and drones in order to better attack the extremists itself, and thus save the government from the furious anti-US backlash that officials say weakens Islamabad's rule.

Under heavy US pressure, Pakistan is pressing a ground and air assault against Taliban militants in three districts of North West Frontier Province, which unlike the tribal areas comes under direct government control.

Top US military commander Admiral Mike Mullen said Thursday that the United States has taken the unprecedented step of sharing with Islamabad surveillance data collected by drones flying over Pakistan.

Pakistan rejects criticism that it does not do enough to counter Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants holed up on the Afghan border.

The country has paid dearly for its alliance with the US in its "war on terror." Militant attacks have killed more than 1,800 people since July 2007.

Pakistan's rugged tribal regions have been wracked by violence since becoming a stronghold for hundreds of Taliban and Al-Qaeda rebels who fled across the border to escape the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.

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