Pak rebels extend truce

The militants announced a month-long ceasefire in June to allow tribal elders to try to end the conflict in North Waziristan, where hundreds of people have been killed in battles between security forces and militants over the past year.

The truce was extended for another month in late July.

"The ceasefire has been extended once again to give more time to tribal elders to broker a peace," said a provincial government official in North West Frontier Province. He declined to be identified.

The tribal elders held a jirga, or traditional council, on Friday at which the militants announced the two-week extension.

As part of the deal, 10 militants were released from prison, said another official, Muhammad Iqbal, an assistant administrator of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan region.

The militants are described as Pakistani Taliban after the hardline Afghan militia that is battling foreign troops and government forces across the border in Afghanistan.

The fiercely independent Pashtun tribes that inhabit both sides of the porous border have never been brought fully under the control of any government.

The militants promised to remain peaceful inside Pakistan.

But they are also demanding free movement into Afghanistan to support the mostly Pashtun Taliban in their jihad, or Muslim holy war, there, the provincial official said.