Military ruler Musharraf's remarks come amid mounting anger at warnings from key ally Washington that it will not allow Osama bin Laden's rejuvenated terror network to use the South Asian nation's frontier regions as a safe haven.

"Inside Pakistani territory only Pakistani forces will operate and they are fully capable of performing this task," Musharraf told reporters as he left for a visit to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

"We are fighting extremism and terrorism in our national interest and we do not have to please anyone," state media quoted him as saying.

Musharraf also rejected the US allegations that al-Qaeda is regrouping in Pakistan's rugged tribal belt, where hundreds of Islamic militants took shelter after US-led forces overthrew Afghanistan's Taliban regime in 2001.

"A small number of al-Qaeda elements present in the area are on the run and we are pursuing them," the president said.

Pakistan has bristled against the recent string of US threats of strikes against al-Qaeda, calling them "irresponsible and dangerous", while hundreds of people have fled the tribal zone fearing military action.

The country has been gripped by a wave of suicide attacks and other militant violence since a bloody army operation to clear militants from Islamabad's Red Mosque earlier this month. More than 200 people have died in the attacks.

Senior US State Department troubleshooter Nicholas Burns said this week that Washington would retain the option of targeting Osama bin Laden's terror group in Pakistani-Afghan border areas in some circumstances.

The White House's top counter-terrorism official Frances Townsend on Sunday caused a stir by refusing to rule out a military incursion into the remote Pakistani regions close to the border with Afghanistan.