President Asif Ali Zardari's move formalises a controversial deal between a pro-Taliban cleric who led thousands of supporters to fight against US troops in Afghanistan and the government in North West Frontier Province.

The deal applies to Malakand, a district of around three million people in the province that includes the Swat valley.

The central government lost control in Swat, a former ski resort and jewel in the crown of Pakistani tourism, after cleric Maulana Fazlullah launched a campaign to enforce Taliban-style sharia.

Militants beheaded opponents, bombed schools and fought government forces, prompting tens of thousands of people to flee.

"God willing it will have a positive impact on the situation in Swat," said interior ministry chief Rehman Malik of the agreement.

"It is hoped that those who wanted this law in Swat will now surrender their arms and also bring the peace," he told reporters.

However, critics say the deal opens the floodgates to the "Talibanisation" of swathes of Pakistan, and the policy came under widespread criticism when a video emerged earlier this month of a veiled woman being flogged in public.

A spokesman for pro-Taliban cleric Soofi Mohammad, who signed the accord, said Zardari's signature would allow peace in Swat, just 160 kilometres (100 miles) away from the capital Islamabad.

"We will make all-out efforts to establish peace in the region. The Taliban have disarmed themselves and those who have not yet disarmed will do so soon," spokesman Amir Izzat Khan told AFP.

A Taliban spokesman in Swat, Muslim Khan, stopped short of an unconditional renunciation of violence, saying "there will be no need to fire a bullet with the enforcement of Islamic laws."

"Women will not be allowed either to go to jobs or markets because we do not want to make them show-pieces," Khan said, who also said the Taliban wanted to introduce an "Islamic syllabus" at schools.

The White House expressed disappointment at the president's move to formalise the deal, saying it infringed human rights.

"We are disappointed the parliament did not take into account legitimate concerns around civil and human rights," said spokesman Robert Gibbs.

Islamic courts have been operating in Swat since last month, but the exact legal significance of the local deal has been shrouded in debate.

Residents in Swat still retain recourse to appeal courts under the federal judicial system, a mixture of colonial British law and sharia regulations.

Zardari's office said he "reiterates his commitment to the supremacy of the constitution."

Pakistan, which US President Barack Obama has put at the heart of the fight against Al-Qaeda, is under huge pressure to clamp down on extremists, but the government says negotiations are the best hope of restoring peace.

Its military is badly equipped for fighting an insurgency against its own people and the alliance with the United States is increasingly unpopular.

Much of the violence has been concentrated in the northwest, where Taliban and Al-Qaeda extremists fled after the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Militant attacks have killed more than 1,700 people since July 2007, while more than 1,500 troops have died at the hands of extremists since 2002.

But past peace deals between the government and pro-Taliban militants have quickly unravelled -- such as a deal in Swat last May.

"I believe that politicians have capitulated," A.H. Nayyar, an analyst and researcher at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), told AFP.

"This is going to badly impact the future of Pakistan and open floodgates for Talibanisation," he added.

"I predict the entire province will fall to Taliban within the next few months. I also see there will be pressures by Taliban in other provinces and Pakistan is going to go back to the dark ages."

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