Gilani said his government had convinced other countries of the world through diplomatic channels that “these drone attacks are creating problems for us.”
Efforts to isolate militants from their tribal support base were being undermined by the strikes in the lawless tribal region bordering Afghanistan, he said in a speech at the federal Parliament.
His remarks came just hours after a drone strike killed six fighters from the Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network on the Afghan border — the first such strike in a month.
“Under a well-thought-out strategy we had separated the tribes from militants, but when drone attacks occur, militants and tribes unite again, which is difficult for us to sustain politically and it also create difficulties for the military operations,” Gilani said.
He has called for an end to drone strikes a number of times in the past and criticized the campaign as an infringement on Pakistani sovereignty.
The US relies heavily on the covert, CIA-run missile program to kill Al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters in Pakistan’s northwest, and with a few exceptions keeps up a steady pace of strikes even when relations with Pakistan are tense.
For its part, Pakistan publicly denounces the strikes, but has secretly helped the program.
Gilani on Wednesday emphasised Pakistan’s importance in the war in terror and fight against Taleban militants.
“Nobody can win Afghanistan war without Pakistan. Drone attacks are not in favor of both countries,” he said.
In Wednesday’s attack, unmanned aircraft fired four missiles into a vehicle traveling through the South Waziristan district.
The strike came just one day after a Washington meeting between the chief of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency and Leon Panetta, director of the CIA, which runs the drone war.
It was the first missile strike since March 17, when Pakistan’s civilian and military leaders strongly protested over a US drone attack that killed 39 people, including civilians and police.
Missile attacks doubled in the area last year, with more than 100 drone strikes killing over 670 people in 2010 compared with 45 strikes that killed 420 in 2009, according to an AFP tally.
The US rarely discusses the missile program publicly, but American officials have in the past described it as very successful in taking out top militants.
Pakistani citizens hold a low opinion of the program, however, alleging numerous civilians end up being killed or maimed by the attacks.
Most of the strikes land in North Waziristan, where several militant groups battling Western forces in Afghanistan are based.
On March 17, a drone strike killed roughly three dozen people in the North Waziristan tribal area.
Pakistani intelligence officials initially described the dead as militants, but later said at least 24 civilians were from tribes asking the Taleban to mediate a dispute.
Pakistan’s army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, issued a rare public statement in which he condemned the attack and US Ambassador Cameron Munter was summoned in protest.
Much of the effort to repair relations comes since the release of the American CIA contractor, Raymond Davis, who shot the two Pakistanis. He was freed after relatives of his victims agreed to accept financial compensation.
