"We are ending the agreement today," the Taliban Shoora (Taliban Council) said in pamphlets distributed in Miranshah, the capital of North Waziristan, where a suicide attack on a military convoy killed 24 troops the previous day.

The government in September signed a peace agreement with tribal leaders in the region -- a deal heavily criticised by Western allies and Afghanistan -- following assurances that the tribesmen would hunt down foreign militants.

Council leaders released the statement Sunday to protest new troop movements, amid sharply heightened tensions after last week's army attack on Islamabad's pro-Taliban Red Mosque, which killed 86 people, mostly militants.

After the raid, Musharraf vowed to crack down on extremists and deployed extra troops to areas including the Swat district of North West Frontier Province and North Waziristan's Dera Ismail Khan area.

Suicide attacks using explosives-packed cars against military convoys in both regions killed more than 40 people and wounded scores more at the weekend.

North Waziristan militant commander Abdullah Farhad had on Saturday threatened "guerrilla war" if government troops did not abandon checkpoints by Sunday in a dispute that has being brewing for weeks.

Sunday's pamphlets said tribal elders would refuse dialogue with authorities who had failed to pull back troops from up to 25 checkpoints.

"We had signed the agreement for the safety and protection of the life and property of our people," the statement said. "But the government forces continued to launch attacks on the Taliban and have killed a number of people.

"The decision we are taking today is in the interest of the people."