The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Peshawar

Pakistan's new government and Taliban militants said Friday that they would press ahead with peace talks despite American skepticism and a militant bombing that killed three people at a police station.

A spokesman for an umbrella group of Pakistani militants defended the car bombing by saying the militants maintained their right to carry out revenge killings, a glaring exception to a cease-fire declared by the group in response to the peace talks.

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Maulvi Umar also insisted the group would continue to support attacks on U.S. forces in Afghanistan, even though a senior Pakistani intelligence official said the proposed peace deal would forbid them.

A U.S. State Department spokesman compared the talks to previous deals between militants and President Pervez Musharraf, deals that broke down last year amid sharp criticism from U.S. officials that militants were only regrouping and plotting more attacks.

"We'll see what this policy proposal yields," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. "There have been attempts in this regard that have not succeeded."

After the deals broke down, Musharraf used heavy firepower against Taliban militants and their al-Qaida allies. Pakistan's five-week-old civilian administration is seeking to distance itself from that U.S.-backed approach, which many here argue only fueled militancy.