Jan. 17 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the U.S. will work to address concerns in Pakistan after a U.S. air strike killed civilians in a border village, sparking protests in Pakistani cities.

``We'll continue to work with the Pakistanis and we'll try to address their concerns,'' Rice said while traveling yesterday to Liberia, according to an e-mailed State Department transcript.

Rice said she hadn't any information on whether the Jan. 13 air strike was aimed at Ayman al-Zawahiri, the number two leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

Pakistan, which has protested the air strike to the U.S., has supported the U.S.-led war on terrorism and has arrested more than 600 suspected terrorists since 2001. Pakistan's army has been fighting insurgents linked to al-Qaeda and neighboring Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime in the northwestern tribal region since October 2003. Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters have fled into the tribal region from Afghanistan.

``I would just say to both the Pakistani government and the Pakistani people we are allies in the war on terror,'' Rice said. ``We've made a lot of progress by cooperation in the war on terror.'' Members of the al-Qaeda network ``are not people who can be dealt with lightly.''

At least 17 civilians were killed in the incident in the Bajur tribal district, the Associated Press reported.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said yesterday the incident was ``very regrettable,'' AP reported. He said he will go ahead with a visit to the U.S. that starts today to build business ties because the attack doesn't ``take away from the fact that Pakistan needs investment,'' AP reported.

U.S. Envoy

Nicholas Burns, the U.S. under secretary for political affairs, is scheduled to visit Pakistan next week, the U.S. State Department said Jan. 13.

Burns will meet Pakistani government officials for talks that will include ``broadening the U.S.-Pakistan bilateral relationship,'' the State Department said.

Protesters took to the streets of Pakistani cities over the weekend calling for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan and burning U.S. flags, AP reported. About 10,000 people marched in Karachi and protests also took place in Islamabad, Lahore, Multan and Peshawar, the news agency said.

``There will be more, bigger protests,'' AP cited Shahid Shamsi, a spokesman for an alliance of Pakistani Islamic groups, as saying yesterday. ``Pakistani civilians, including children, were killed. Principles cannot be broken in the name of (fighting) terrorism.''

Village Festival

Al-Zawahiri wasn't in the village of Damadola when the attack took place, AP cited unidentified Pakistani intelligence officials as saying two days ago. He had been invited to attend a dinner marking a Muslim festival in Damadola, about 190 kilometers (120 miles) northwest of Islamabad and near the Afghanistan border, AP cited the officials as saying.

Former U.S. President George H.W. Bush, the United Nation's special envoy for relief and rebuilding in northern Pakistan after the Oct. 8 earthquake, is currently visiting the country.

Bush, who met Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf after arriving in Islamabad yesterday, plans to visit quake-hit regions during his two-day stay, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said yesterday in a statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighe@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 16, 2006 22:42 EST