Pakistan on Tuesday promised China maximum support in fighting Muslim separatists, determined to keep relations with its key ally on track to offset its troubled alliance with the United States.

"We are true friends. China's enemy is our enemy, we will extend our full cooperation to China on security," Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told visiting Chinese Public Security Minister Meng Jianzhu in Islamabad.

China last month said Islamist camps in Pakistan were training "terrorists" from its minority Uighur ethnic group blamed for two attacks in July in the Xinjiang region that left 21 dead.

Meng also held talks with President Asif Ali Zardari and military chiefs. Pakistan is under huge American pressure to take action against the Haqqani network, blamed for anti-US attacks in Afghanistan.

Pakistan has refused to bow to US demands that it launch an offensive into the semi-autonomous tribal district of North Waziristan where Haqqani leaders are based, and denies support for their attacks in Afghanistan.

But Gilani on Tuesday told Meng: "We will cooperate with you to the extent you want us to cooperate," according to a statement from his office, which then gave a gushing analogy of Pakistan's relationship with China.

"Pak-China Friendship is higher than mountains, deeper than oceans, stronger than steel and sweeter than honey," the statement quoted Gilani as saying.

Pakistani commanders have given the excuse that they are too overstretched fighting homegrown Taliban in the tribal belt to take on the Haqqanis as well.

Pakistan has around 140,000 troops based along its northwest that borders Afghanistan and says more than 3,000 soldiers have been killed since 2001 -- more than the 2,735 Western soldiers who have died in Afghanistan.

It remains unclear if and what specialised action Pakistan can take on the ground to counter Chinese concerns about Muslim separatists.

The military said talks focused on the "emerging geo-strategic situation" in the region and said Meng "appreciated" the role played by Pakistan's armed forces "in the fight against terror" -- in stark contrast to US frustrations.

"We will work together to contribute to national security and regional stability," Meng told reporters.

China is the main arms supplier to Pakistan, which sees Beijing as an important counter-balance to its traditional rival India. New Delhi has recently improved its ties with the United States, causing worry in Islamabad.

During the visit, Pakistan and China signed agreements worth $250 million in Chinese assistance, Zardari's office said.

China's northwest Xinjiang region has seen several outbreaks of ethnic violence in recent years.

The mainly Muslim Uighurs bridle under what they regard as oppression by the government and the unwanted immigration of ethnic Han Chinese.

Chinese state media said those responsible for the two violent attacks in the ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar at the end of July had been trained in Pakistan-based camps by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM).

Chinese authorities have accused the ETIM, which wants an independent homeland for Xinjiang's Uighurs, of orchestrating attacks in the resource-rich region which borders eight countries, including Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The United States and the United Nations have listed the group as a "terrorist" organisation, and China has previously said it has operations in Pakistan as well as Afghanistan.

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