"There is no authorisation for hot pursuit of terrorists into our territory," Maj Gen Waheed Arshad, spokesman for the Pakistan Army, told The Associated Press on Saturday. "Whatever actions are needed to fight terrorism, we are taking them."

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry rejected an assertion by Lt Gen Douglas Lute, chief operations officer for the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, that his forces routinely fire on and pursue Taliban into Pakistan.

"No foreign forces are allowed to cross into our territorial border," said Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam. "Pakistan and United States are partners in the war on terror not adversaries."

Aslam's and Arshad's comments came two days after Lute told the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington that "we have all the authorities we need to pursue, either with (artillery) fire or on the ground, across the border."

Lute provided a detailed description of when US forces can fire on and pursue insurgents across the border into the Islamic nation of Pakistan, an important ally of the US in its campaign against terrorism.

Meanwhile, US and Pakistani agents were interrogating the Taliban's former defence minister Saturday in the hope that he can help them hunt down other militant leaders, security officials said.

Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, who had a one-million-dollar bounty on his head posted by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), was arrested with four other suspects on Wednesday in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta.