* NATO chief says incursions unintended
* Taliban vow more attacks
* Re-opening of supply route likely to be delayed
* U.S.-Pakistan tension could increase
By Kamran Haider and David Brunnstrom
ISLAMABAD/BRUSSELS, Oct 4 (Reuters) - NATO's chief expressed regret on Monday for the deaths of Pakistani soldiers last week and said he hoped Pakistan's border would reopen for NATO supplies to Afghanistan as soon as possible.
Angered by repeated attacks by NATO helicopters on militant targets within its borders, Pakistan blocked one of the supply routes for NATO troops in Afghanistan after a strike killed three Pakistani soldiers in the western Kurram region.
"I expressed my regret for the incident last week in which Pakistani soldiers lost their lives," Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said after meeting Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in Brussels.
"I expressed my hope the border will be open for supplies as soon as possible."
The apology came after gunmen attacked a convoy of trucks taking goods to Western forces in Afghanistan on the outskirts of the Pakistani capital.
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Senior police officer Mirwaiz Niaz said at least a dozen gunmen opened fire on tankers at a depot near Islamabad late on Sunday, killing three guards. They then set fire to 13 vehicles.
Pakistani Taliban militants claimed responsibility.
"We will continue such attacks all over the country to avenge drone attacks and attacks by foreign forces inside Pakistani territory," Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Pakistan has officially said the border has been closed for security reasons and the Taliban threat of more attacks will likely prolong the closure of the vital supply route -- now in its fifth day -- and further strain ties with ally Washington, which has long demanded Pakistan crack down on militants.
About half of non-lethal supplies for western forces in land-locked Afghanistan pass through Pakistan, giving Pakistan considerable leverage over the United States, which is scrambling to contain a raging Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan before it starts withdrawing troops in July next year.
"Efforts are underway to resolve this issue, but there is a lot of anger in Pakistan about the border incursion," a senior Pakistani government official told Reuters.
NATO spokesman in Afghanistan were not available for comment.
The NATO incursions and Afghan supply routes are likely to figure highly on the agenda when Pakistani officials and army commanders get together for a regular monthly meeting, analysts said.
"THERE IS ANGER"
Despite its anger, Pakistan can't afford to antagonise for too long an ally that provides $2 billion in military aid a year -- aid vital for Pakistan's own fight against militants, analysts say.
"This issue has to be resolved and it will be resolved soon because no-one can afford a total breakdown," a Pakistani security official said.
"There has to be some solution and I think there will be one. But there is an anger and you have to address it."
Rasmussen said the killing of the three Pakistani soldiers was unintended and showed the need to improve coordination between the NATO and the Pakistani military. He said a joint investigation was under way.
"It is important we step up our cooperation," he said.
That cooperation could be slow in coming, however, because the U.S. CIA has escalated its unacknowledged campaign of pilotless drone strikes against al Qaeda-linked militants in Pakistan's northwest, with 21 attacks in September, the highest number in a single month on record.
Civilian casualties caused by the drone strikes have infuriated many Pakistanis and made it harder for the government to cooperate with the United States.
The strikes preceded warnings by Britain and the United States of an increased risk of terrorist attacks in Europe, with Washington saying al Qaeda might target transport infrastructure.
Pakistan is under heavy U.S. pressure to crack down harder on militants in the northwest of the country near the Afghan border, parts of which are described as a global hub for extremists.
A senior Pakistani intelligence official said there may be up to 20 Britons in ethnic Pashtun tribal areas in the northwest training with militants, but that there was scant information on them.
"This is a concern to us, yes," the official said. "We have very limited ability to look into North Waziristan and South Waziristan. Primarily because more than 50 of our sources have been ceremonially butchered."
"At one time, it (the area) was like a black hole to us."
Now, the official said, Pakistan relies primarily on electronic intercepts and eavesdropping to gather intelligence on militants in the area. (Additional reporting by Chris Allbritton, Faisal Mehmood and Zeeshan Haider in Islamabad, and Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Chris Allbritton and Robert Birsel) (For more Reuters coverage of Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/places/pakistan)
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