Karachi, 23 July (AKI) - (by Syed Saleem Shahzad) - Pro-Taliban militants in Pakistan's north-western Swat Valley said on Wednesday that they are preparing for a fresh battle against government forces after a peace deal with the authorities broke down.

"The government has breached the peace agreement with the continuation of the operation in Hangu," Muslim Khan, a spokesperson for the pro-Taliban militants told Adnkronos International (AKI).

Khan was referring to Pakistani military operations in Hangu, Swat and other areas in Pakistan's North West Frontier province.

"Therefore, our men have once again prepared for the new round of battle.

Under the peace deal, the militants had listed a variety of conditions including the withdrawal of troops from the region.

Khan said that the militants of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan had now positioned themselves on the mountain tops of Swat Valley and were waiting for orders from their leader, Baitullah Mehsud.

"We are now waiting for a signal from Baitullah Mehsud and once we receive the signal, the fight shall spread all over North West Frontier Province and in the tribal areas beside the Pakistani cities," he said.

Baitullah Mehsud, a member of South Waziristan's Mehsud tribe, has emerged as Pakistan's most feared militant over the past year.

He has been accused of a string of suicide attacks across Pakistan including the gun and bomb attack on 27 December which killed former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Wednesday's warning by the TTP spokesman comes at the end of a five-day ultimatum issued by Mehsud to the provincial government to resign.

It also coincides with a meeting on Wednesday between the parties that make up Pakistan's coalition government to develop a consensus on a military operation against the pro-Taliban militants.

Leaders within the government including, Shahbaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Maulana Fazlur Rahman of the Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam, Asfandyar Wali of Awami National Party and Asif Ali Zardari [Bhutto's widower] of the Pakistan Peoples Party held a meeting on Wednesday presided over Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, the Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam and the Awami National Party are still insistent that dialogue with the militants should resume.

However following feedback from the security agencies on the new aggressive designs of the pro-Taliban militants, the main political party in government, the Pakistan Peoples Party, decided to hold the meeting to convince its partner to come up with a unanimous strategy.

Sources told AKI that the security agencies are convinced that a new operation is inevitable in the coming day because of the militants' rigid stance. This despite the fact that the government is still using some back-channels to try and negotiate with them.

Meanwhile, Pakistani security agencies have discovered that members of a new militant outfit, the Lashkar-i-Abdullah, have entered the capital Islamabad and are planning to target all those who were directly or indirectly involved in last year's military operation at the radical Islamabad mosque, Lal Masjid [Red Mosque].

More than 100 people were killed in fighting at the Lal Masjid in July 2007 after Pakistani troops stormed the building to evict militants who had taken sanctuary within the mosque and the Muslim seminaries within its complex.

Several students were killed in the operation as well as the mosque's deputy prayer leader, Abdul Rashid Ghazi and his mother.

The mosque's administration was trying to implement Sharia or Islamic law and Islamic courts in defiance of the local administration.

"The most worrisome aspect is the newly found coordination amongst these Jihadis which was non-existent in the past," said the former director general Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and a former federal minister Lieutenant General Javaid Ashraf Qazi in an interview with AKI.

"They have all gathered under the banner of Baitullah Mehsud's decision," he said.