ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan's efforts to combat terrorism suffered a major blow yesterday, when a suicide bomber attacked a tribal gathering that was part of an emerging anti-Taliban movement, killing at least 30 and injuring 100.

Meanwhile, the country's politicians -- meeting in a special parliamentary session in an attempt to forge a consensus in the fight against Islamic extremists -- were unable to agree on even the most basic tenets of the country's struggle, with many charging that Pakistan is still pursuing a U.S. agenda. It was the first time that the nation's elected representatives have considered the issue formally since 9/11, when former President Pervez Musharraf aligned Pakistan with the United States.

"We feel the new government is defending the status quo, Musharraf's policies," said Khurram Dastagir, a member of parliament from the main opposition group, led by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. "The military approach has been tried, and it has been a great failure."

The government's inability to unite behind a strategy for combating Islamic extremism and the extremists' counterattack underlined the challenge facing Pakistan and its new civilian government in the face of a terrorist attack this week against a heavily guarded police station in the capital of Islamabad, and following the destruction last month of the capital's best-known hotel, the Marriott.

The Pakistani military's inability to halt such attacks has prompted frontier tribesmen to revive their own traditions and form lashkars, or militias, to fight extremists. Clans in both of the tribal agencies that border Afghanistan and in the North West Frontier Province have begun forming lashkars to defend their areas.

The latest suicide attack targeted the lashkar movement in the Orakzai part of the tribal area. The tribal areas are considered the most likely hiding place for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and a haven for Taliban and al-Qaida extremists, but Orakzai had been one of the more peaceful agencies.

Some 600 members of Orakzai's Alizai tribe had gathered in a traditional open-air meeting, called a jirga, when the bomber struck. Local television reports put the death toll at more than 50. Witnesses said an explosive-laden car drove into the middle of the meeting.

Separately, two rockets fired by suspected militants hit Kohat, a city near Orakzai, injuring at least six.

According to Orakzai officials, the meeting was completing the formation of a militia. Tribesmen planned to demolish the local Taliban headquarters immediately afterward.

"It appears that the militants are increasing their attacks as a pre-emptive measure, because they think that the Pakistan army and NATO are about to take them on in a bigger way," said Farrukh Saleem, executive director of the Center for Research and Security Studies, a policy institute in Islamabad.