Pakistan will take up the issue of missile attacks on militants in its northwest tribal belt during a visit by US special envoy Richard Holbrooke next week, the foreign ministry said Thursday. Pakistan says the strikes, the most recent of which killed up to 12 militants in the Orakzai tribal district on Wednesday, violate its territorial sovereignty and deepen resentment among its 160 million people. "Mr Holbrooke is scheduled to visit Pakistan next week. And this issue would come up for our discussions," foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit told a weekly press briefing. It will be Holbrooke's first visit since US President Barack Obama put Pakistan at the centre of the fight against Al-Qaeda, unveiling a new strategy to commit thousands more troops and billions of dollars to the Afghan war. A spokesman for the US embassy in Islamabad was not immediately reachable to comment on Holbrooke's schedule. Asked if Pakistan had lodged a protest with the United States against Wednesday's missile attack from a pilotless aircraft, Basit said: "This is part of our ongoing discussions with the US."