Interior Minister Rehman Malik, speaking after visiting Pakistanis displaced by the battle, also wouldn´t rule out extending the operation in the Swat Valley and surrounding areas to other parts of the northwest where al-Qaida and the Taliban have long thrived.
It was not possible to independently verify the figures provided by Malik — the affected territories are now too dangerous for journalists to freely roam — but his declarations seemed designed to show Pakistani resolve amid intense US pressure.
"The operation is going in the right direction as we had planned," Malik said in a televised news conference from Mardan, a district hosting several relief camps for some of the nearly 1 million people turned refugees. "People wish to go back. That is what the government also wants. I cannot give a time but we will try (to complete the operation) at the earliest."
Washington wants Islamabad to clear out al-Qaida and Taliban safe havens along the border region to ease the pressure on Afghan-based US and NATO troops and eliminate a threat to nuclear-armed Pakistan itself.
The Taliban´s ability to overrun Swat, once of Pakistan´s premier tourist destinations, has proved particularly embarrassing to the military and the weak civilian government. Many of the militant safe havens, however, are in Pakistan´s semiautonomous tribal areas, with South Waziristan serving as the primary base for Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud.
Britain´s Sunday Times reported that Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said military action would follow in the tribal belt.
"We´re going to go into Waziristan, all these regions, with army operations," the newspaper quoted Zardari as saying in an interview. "Swat is just the start. It´s a larger war to fight."
Zardari´s spokesmen could not immediately be reached Sunday. Malik did not respond directly when asked about a potential extension.
"Wherever the government requires an operation, we will, God willing, do that," he said.
Malik also denied allegations that Pakistan had lost control of any of its territory, though accounts from the 3,500-square mile (9,000-square kilometer) Swat Valley alone have long suggested that government authority in much of that region was nonexistent.
"I should say there are pockets in Swat, maybe 2 percent maximum, where the Taliban are creating problems," Malik said. "This operation will continue till the last Taliban are flushed out."
The operation has involved fighting in the Lower Dir and Buner districts that dates back to last month, but the offensive began in full force in Swat in early May.
Of the nearly 1 million civilians who have fled the affected areas, about 100,000 are now staying in sweltering relief camps. The military has warned that some militants are trying to flee as well, some after shaving off their beards to blend in with refugees.
Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said Saturday that 47 militants had been killed in the previous 24 hours and that one pocket of the valley near the town of Khwazakhela was safe enough for residents to return.
The army has been preparing to assail the Swat Valley´s main town, Mingora, where many of the estimated 4,000 Taliban fighters in the valley are believed to be holed up.
The military does not explain how it differentiates civilian from militant killings, and it has not released a civilian death toll, but witnesses have reported many innocent people have been wounded or killed.
Malik insisted the devastation would not last long.
"Instead of a terrorists´ hub, Swat will soon be a tourists´ hub like it used to be," he said.
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