ISLAMABAD: The chief of Pakistan's defence committee says Washington put on hold US drone strikes after the deadly November raid along the Afghan border so as not to ''worsen'' the already strained ties with Islamabad.

Javed Ashraf Qazi said Tuesday he believes the lull in the strikes would at this point only be broken if there was a confirmed report of a high profile target.

There hasn't been a missile strike against militants since the Nov. 26 Nato raid at the Pakistani army border outpost that killed 24 soldiers. That's according to The Long War Journal, a website that tracks the strikes.

It says the 33-day break is the longest ever since the CIA's covert operations began in 2004 against al Qaeda and Taliban militants in Pakistan's tribal regions along the Afghan border.