ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - Pakistan's efforts to combat terrorism suffered a major blow Friday when a suicide bomber attacked a tribal gathering that was part of an emerging anti-Taliban movement, killing at least 30 and injuring 100.

Meanwhile, the country's politicians, meeting in a special parliamentary session in an attempt to forge a consensus in the fight against Islamic extremists, were unable to agree on even the most basic tenets of the country's struggle, with many charging that Pakistan is still pursuing an American agenda.

It was the first time that the country's elected representatives have considered the issue formally since 9/11, when former president Pervez Musharraf aligned Pakistan with the United States.

"We feel the new government are defending the status quo, Musharraf's policies," said Khurram Dastagir, a member of parliament from the main opposition group led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. "The military approach has been tried, and it has been a great failure."

"Previously we weren't sold out to the Americans," said Faisal Saleh Hayat, a former interior minister under Musharraf. "Today, we are sold out, lock, stock and barrel, to the Americans."

The government's inability to unite behind a strategy for combating Islamic extremism and the extremists' counterattack underlined the challenge facing Pakistan and its new civilian government in the face of a terrorist attack this week against a heavily guarded police station in the capital of Islamabad, following the destruction last month of the capital's best-known hotel, the Marriott.

The Pakistani military's inability to halt such attacks has prompted frontier tribesmen to revive their own traditions and form lashkars, or militias, to fight extremists. Clans in both of the tribal agencies that border Afghanistan and in the North West Frontier Province have begun forming lashkars to defend their areas.

The tribal areas are considered the most likely hiding place for Osama bin Laden and a haven for Taliban and al-Qaida extremists, but Orakzai had been one of the more peaceful agencies.

The latest suicide attack targeted the lashkar movement in the Orakzai part of the tribal area. About 600 members of the Alizai tribe had gathered in a traditional open-air meeting called a jirga when the bomber struck. Local television reports put the death toll at more than 50.

Get $150+ in coupons in every Sunday N&O. Click here for convenient home delivery.