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PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Wednesday (AFP,Reuters) Paramilitary troops have issued an ultimatum to Pakistani tribesmen near the border with Afghanistan to hand over four "foreigners" or face an armed assault, officials said.

Authorities have been negotiating with tribesmen at Bannu, 200 kilometers (120 miles) south of Peshawar, since Monday when the four were apprehended at a paramilitary checkpoint.

"But Pakistani friends of the four rushed to the nearby village of Janikhel and informed the armed villagers who stormed the checkpost and secured their release," an official said on condition of anonimity.

Another official from the home department of North West Frontier Province said negotiations for the handing over of the four had so far failed.

"The tribals have refused to hand over these foreigners, but we will give them one more chance. If that fails we will use force," he said.

Hundreds of al-Qaeda fugitives and the network's chief Osama bin Laden are believed by US and Afghan officials to be hiding in Pakistan's remote tribal belt.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has conceded bin Laden could be taking refuge there, though he said he was more likely in Afghanistan.

Pakistani forces, waging unprecedented operations in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, have detained about 400 suspected al-Qaeda fighters fleeing Afghanistan since the US-led coalition began its military campaign to wipe out al-Qaeda and their Taliban hosts in October.

Up to a dozen US intelligence and communications experts from the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been helping the Pakistani forces, but Islamabad and Washington have insisted there are no US combat troops operating on Pakistani soil.

Locals at Bannu told AFP by telephone, however, the four foreigners under their protection have no links with al-Qaeda or the Taliban.

"They are simply Islamic preachers. They are our guests and we will not hand them over to the soldiers," said tribesman Alam Jan.

Another tribesman said negotiations had failed because local tradition dictates that guests -- even fugitives who had requested and been granted haven -- should be defended at all costs.

Tribal elders in the region have told central authorities, however, they would hand over any "foreign trouble makers", but authorities are maintaining their hardline.

"Why don't the tribals just hand them over -- if they are innocent they will be released. If they don't hand them over we will attack and destroy the houses of those people who have disobeyed Pakistan's law," the home department official said.

Al Qaeda, Taliban gold shipped to Sudan

Meanwhile the Al Qaeda network and Afghanistan's deposed Taliban militia have sent several shipments of gold to Sudan in recent weeks, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing European, Pakistani and U.S. investigators.

The newspaper quoted sources as saying that several shipments of gold were taken by boat from the Pakistani port of Karachi to either Iran or the United Arab Emirates and flown by chartered airplanes to Khartoum, the Sudanese capital.

The report said it was not clear how much gold has been moved, but U.S. and European officials said the quantity was significant and an indication that al Qaeda and members of the Taliban militia still had access to large financial reserves.

The sources, who were not identified, told the newspaper Sudan may have been chosen as the repository for the gold because al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and others in his network were familiar with the country and had business contacts there.

Bin Laden lived in Sudan from 1991 to 1996, when he was forced to move to Afghanistan.

A draft United Nations report by a panel of experts states that al Qaeda's financial structure remains largely intact and retains access to tens of millions of dollars.

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