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The Pakistani army has found the wreckage of a suspected US spy plane near the Afghan border but has rejected claims it was shot down.

A military spokesman told the BBC that the drone was recovered on Tuesday in the South Waziristan tribal area and the wreckage was being examined. The spokesman said the crash appeared to have been due to a malfunction. The US has not confirmed the loss of the drone. It has denied that any of its aircraft have been shot down.

Meanwhile, fighting between Pakistani troops and Taleban militants is continuing in the tribal region of Bajaur.

In Quetta, capital of south-western Balochistan province, a young girl was killed in a suicide bombing.

About a dozen military personnel were also injured in the assault on an army vehicle.

"A surveillance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), while flying over the Pak-Afghan border yesterday [Tuesday] night, crash-landed on this side of the bordert apparently due to malfunctioning," a Pakistani military spokesman said.

"The wreckage of the UAV has been recovered from the site by the security forces personnel and the matter is under detailed investigation," the spokesman said in a statement. The statement did not say who the drone belonged to, but security officials said they were in no doubt it was an American aircraft.

The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Karachi says this is the first time a US drone has crashed inside Pakistani territory.

The crash comes amid recent reports that Pakistani troops have opened fire to prevent the US forces from operating inside Pakistan, our correspondent says. The Pentagon said it had no report of any crash, while the CIA denied any knowledge of the incident.

"We have no reports of any loss of DoD [Department of Defense] drones," Lieutenant Colonel Mark Wright told the AFP news agency.

Officials said tribesmen in the village of Jalal first found the drone before troops later retrieved it. The area is known to be a stronghold of the Taleban and al-Qaeda militants. "No firing was heard in the area so there is no question of it being shot down," a senior Pakistani security official told AFP on condition of anonymity. But residents gave a different account.

"The tribesmen fired at the drone and it fell out of the sky," one unnamed resident told AFP.

US President George Bush said on Tuesday that he wanted to help Pakistan protect itself. He was speaking moments before his first meeting with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari at the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Bush did not refer directly to the controversial US strikes in Pakistan that have caused bilateral tensions.

There is growing anger in Pakistan at the US forces in Afghanistan violating Pakistani sovereignty.