A rare suicide attack on the Pakistan army killed three soldiers on Monday in the North Waziristan tribal region, reinforcing fears that peace deals with tribesmen sympathetic to the Taliban were disintegrating.

In addition to the fatalities, a military spokesman said nine soldiers were wounded, some of them critically, when a car bomber rammed the army vehicles at Khajori checkpost, near the town of Mir Ali, where Taliban and al Qaeda fighters have been active in the past.

"A white colored car hit the convoy and it appears to be a suicide attack," spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan told Reuters.

Hundreds of people have been killed in clashes between the security forces and the militants in Waziristan over the past four years.

Suicide attacks on the army, however, are extremely rare, although the Taliban regularly uses the tactic against Afghan, U.S., and NATO-led forces across the border.

Monday's attack on the army is the first since an air strike by the Pakistan army on a militant base in neighboring South Waziristan region.

The air strike killed up to 20 militants, according to intelligence officials, though villagers said only the bodies of eight wood-cutters were found.

Tensions have been running high in Waziristan since then, and tribesmen in the area expected peace accords worked out by the government with militants and tribal elders to breakdown.

The government signed an accord in North Waziristan last September, while a similar deal was struck with militants in South Waziristan in February, 2005.

U.S. officials say cross-border incursions into Afghanistan by Taliban fighters based in Pakistan increased significantly after the North Waziristan accord, though the tribal area itself has been relatively calm.

PHOTO CAPTION

A Pakistani paramilitary soldier stands guard near Quetta, October 2006. (AFP)

Reuters