PAKISTAN is to review its relationship with the United States, the Prime Minister's office has said, after the killing of the Pakistani Taliban leader in a drone strike.
But a top-level meeting to examine relations, scheduled for yesterday, was postponed at the last minute without explanation.
Hakimullah Mehsud, who had a £3.3 million ($5m) US bounty on his head, was killed on Friday in the north-western Pakistani militant stronghold of North Waziristan, near the Afghan border.
The Pakistani Taliban has killed thousands of Pakistani civilians and members of security forces in its bid to impose Islamist rule, but the new government has been calling for peace talks.
The government denounced Mr Mehsud's killing as a US bid to derail the talks and summoned the US ambassador on Saturday.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's office had said he would chair a meeting on the consequences for ties with Washington. There is no indication when it might now take place.
Some politicians have demanded US military supply lines into Afghanistan be blocked in response.
Asad Qaiser, the speaker of the provincial assembly, said: "It is clear that the US is against peace and does not want terrorism to subside. Now, we only have one agenda: to stop Nato supplies going through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ."
Pakistan is the main route for supplies for US troops in landlocked Afghanistan, for everything from food and drinking water to fuel, and the closure of the routes could be a serious disruption as US and other Western forces prepare to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of next year.
Pakistani cooperation is also seen as vital in trying to bring peace to Afghanistan, in particular in nudging the Afghan Taliban, allied but separate from the Pakistani Taliban, into talks with the Kabul government.
Relations between the US and Pakistan have been strained several times over recent years, including in 2011 when US forces killed Osama bin Laden in a raid Pakistan said violated its sovereignty. But cash-strapped Pakistan depends to a great extent on US support. Washington, despite frustrations, is unlikely to break completely with its nuclear-armed ally.
Three Pakistani Taliban commanders said they had been due to meet a government delegation on Saturday and had been meeting to discuss the talks. They said they felt betrayed by Mr Mehsud's killing and were no longer interested in talks.
A Pakistani Taliban spokesman vowed a wave of revenge bombings. Allied militant groups are also planning bombings, said Ahmed Marwat, the spokesman for Jundullah militant group.
Mr Mehsud's followers have been debating who should replace him while they observe three days of mourning, said Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid. They have in the meantime appointed an interim leader, Asmatullah Shaheen.
Several militant commanders said on Saturday that 38-year-old Khan Said, known as Sajna, had been chosen.
But other factions of the Pakistani Taliban alliance were unhappy with the choice and were supporting other candidates. These included Mullah Fazlullah, the ruthless commander from the Swat Valley, north-west of the capital, Islamabad, whose men shot and wounded schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai last year.
Mr Said was seen as a relative moderate and, if he became leader, talks with the government might begin, said Imtiaz Gul, head of Islamabad-based Centre for Research and Security Studies think-tank.
But if Fazlullah was chosen, there would be little hope of compromise, he said. Even if talks started, it was unclear how successful they would be unless the government gave significant concessions to the militants.
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