Pakistan's military claims it has regained control over the restive Swat Valley in the northwest, and said up to 220 pro-Taliban militants had been killed since late October.

Chief army spokesman Major-General Waheed Arshad has said the militants have vacated the Swat area and running towards the western mountains,

The offensive began when the government sent additional troops to the scenic Swat valley, to rein in around 5,000 armed followers of radical Muslim cleric Maulana Fazlullah, who is fighting to impose strict Islamic law.

The firebrand cleric had urged the local population to carry out suicide attacks against security forces and had sent men to capture dozens of villages, including a police station in Matta, renaming it the 'Taliban Police Station.'

The army has been using helicopter gunships and artillery to pound rebel positions in the mountains for a month, and used its ground troops in the second phase of the operation, which began last weekend.

Some Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters, who fled to the Swat region after US-led forces invaded neighbouring Afghanistan in 2001, were also believed to be aiding Fazlullah's militia.

When President Pervez Musharraf proclaimed a state of emergency on Nov 3rd, he justified it by citing the rise of the insurgency in the area.