The claims by Adm. Mike Mullen led to a crisis-like atmosphere in Islamabad, with fears of US military action uppermost in many minds. Prime Minister Reza Yousuf Gilani summoned the country’s normally feuding political party leaders to a meeting to discuss the American claims and perceived threats of an offensive.

They agreed to a vaguely worded resolution late Thursday that called for peace with insurgents in Afghanistan, an apparent rejection of American demands that the Pakistan army attack the Haqqani network. US officials say that group is based on the Pakistan side of the border and is responsible for much of the violence in Afghanistan.

It also went on to say the country should seek dialogue with Pakistanis in the tribal regions close to Afghanistan, apparently in reference to militants there battling the Pakistani state. Such a position has long been popular with Islamist parties, whose rhetoric paints the US — not the Taleban and Al-Qaeda — as the No. 1 enemy facing the country.

Few expected the delegates to stake out a position that challenged the army, which formulates the country’s foreign policy, so their rhetoric was mostly symbolic. But it was a signal to Washington that the country’s elected representatives supported the military, and as such will do nothing to ease strains with Washington.

The resolution said Mullen’s remarks last week were “baseless” and hurt the country’s cooperation with the United States, echoing the line taken by the government and the army.

The resolution also referenced veiled US threats of unilateral action against the Haqqanis if Pakistan does not act, saying the “the Pakistani nation affirms its full solidarity and support for the armed forces of Pakistan in defeating any threat to national security.”

“The message to the US is that the politicians and the government support the military, that is plus point for the army,” said Hasan-Askari Rizvi, a Pakistani political and defense analyst.

US officials have long talked with Islamabad about links between Pakistan and the militant Haqqani network that is behind much of the violence in Afghanistan. But those discussions were mostly held in private, in the hope that Pakistan could gradually be persuaded to sever the purported ties with the group.

But Mullen, American’s top military official, seemed to signal a new approach last Friday when he told Congress that that Haqqani network was a “veritable arm” of the spy agency, which he said supported the militants in a recent attack on the US embassy in Kabul.

The Islamabad meeting was addressed by Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the head of the Inter-Services Intelligence, who was quoted as saying that his organization was in contact with the Haqqani’s “political wing.”

“The ISI chief explained that Haqqani network has three or more wings and we have no links with its militant wing but we keep liaison with its political wing for peace in Afghanistan,” said Imran Khan, a leading politician, after the meeting broke up.

Most analysts say the Pakistani army and the spy agency are tolerating or even supporting the Haqqani network because they want to cultivate it as an ally in Afghanistan once the Americans withdraw. They see little chance of the top brass attacking the group now, especially when the US is calling for peace talks with other militant factions in Afghanistan.

This view has support in Pakistan, where many people perceive the Americans as the illegitimate force in Afghanistan, not the Afghan Taleban. But others oppose it because the militants are ideologically allied to Al-Qaeda and other extremists who have carried out scores of bombings on Pakistani soil over the last four years.