Pakistan has strongly rejected an American warning that it is serving as a "platform for terrorism" and that it must stop incursions into Indian Kashmir.

What she said amounts to a joke and has hurt our nation's feelings Khurshid Ahmed, MMA vice-president

Reports suggest that the US ambassador to Islamabad, Nancy Powell, who made the comments to a meeting of US businessmen in Karachi on Thursday, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Friday.

A statement issued by the Foreign Ministry said that the ambassador had been told that "Pakistan has taken all measures not to allow any infiltration".

"Pakistan stood by its commitment to the international community", it said.

Meanwhile some Islamist leaders called for action to be taken against Ms Powell.

'Insulting'

Professor Khurshid Ahmed, vice-president of the main alliance of Islamist parties - the MMA - told the BBC's Urdu Service: "We haven't asked for her expulsion but the government must take some action against her."

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"What she said amounts to a joke and has hurt our nation's feelings."

In October's general elections the religious parties, standing on an anti-American platform, made unprecedented gains.

'Appeasing India'

Pakistan's Information Minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, told Pakistani TV: "The world knows and Nancy Powell herself knows that we are one of the top supporters of anti-terrorism and we want that there should be peace all over the world."

Kashmir poses a serious threat to regional stability

He also said that the United States appeared to be trying to appease India, but that instead it should be seeking to persuade India to open dialogue with Pakistan over the future of Kashmir.

India has said that it will only talk once it is satisfied that incursions have stopped.

Following the attack on the Indian Parliament in December 2001 which India blamed on Pakistan backed militants, Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf also promised to permanently end incursions into Indian territory.

Pakistan has been a key ally in the US-led war against terror since 11 September.

Many of the al Qaeda and Taleban suspects held in Guantanamo Bay were captured by Pakistani security forces with the help of US intelligence.

According to our correspondent Paul Anderson in Islamabad that, in part, explains why Pakistan feels aggrieved at being cast as a country failing to deal with militants.