Pak amnesty to al-Qaeda supporters shows weakness: Analysts

But Saturday's government offer of amnesty looked more like a concession to the outlaws in a bid to appease the anger of local tribes than a surrender by the fugitives, analysts said.

"Basically what the army realises is that it can't wrinkle them out so it has to make the best of a bad job," said political analyst Mohammad Afzal Niazi.

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The deal signed with the five fugitives will see them hand in a list of foreign militants living with them in return for a promise of peace -- and marks a pause in Pakistan's campaign to weed out the foreign fighters.

In March the government launched a 12-day offensive which left least 46 troops and 15 civilians dead while 63 supporters of the wanted men were also killed and 163 were captured.

Since the March offensive, the government has been threatening military action to round up the five men for sheltering Al-Qaeda linked militants. It twice postponed deadlines for threatened military action before agreeing to a political settlement. "This is unprecedented because the administration does not let tribal people go unpunished, especially if they fight the Pakistani state," writer and analyst Rahimullah Yousafzai told AFP.

"It is a retreat although the military will not acknowledge it," he said.

Yousafzai said the deal was going to weaken the government's stand against the fight against terrorism in the region by setting a precedent for giving in to militants.

Pakistan has trodden a fine line between appeasing local anger and maintaining its alliance with the United States, since President Pervez Musharraf withdraw Pakistan's previous support of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks on the US and sided with Washington.