The US and Pakistan struck a secret deal nearly a decade ago allowing a US operation against Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil just like last week’s raid that killed the al-Qaida leader, the Guardian has learned.

The deal was struck between the military leader General Pervez Musharraf and President George Bush once Bin Laden escaped US forces within the mountains of Tora Bora in late 2001, consistent with serving and retired Pakistani and US officers.

Under its terms, Pakistan would enable US forces to conduct a unilateral raid within Pakistan in search of Bin Laden, his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and also the al-Qaida No3. Afterwards, each side agreed, Pakistan would vociferously protest the incursion.

"There was an agreement between Bush and Musharraf that if we have a tendency to knew where Osama was, we have a tendency to were reaching to return and obtain him," said a former senior US official with data of counterterrorism operations. "The Pakistanis would place up a hue and cry, however they would not stop us."

The deal puts a replacement complexion on the political storm triggered by Bin Laden’s death in Abbottabad, thirty five miles north of Islamabad, where a team folks navy Seals assaulted his safe house within the early hours of two could.

Pakistani officers have insisted they knew nothing of the raid, with military and civilian leaders issuing a powerful rebuke to the US. If the US conducts another such assault, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani warned parliament on Monday, "Pakistan reserves the proper to retaliate with full force."

Days earlier, Musharraf, currently running an opposition party from exile in London, emerged mutually of the foremost vocal critics of the raid, terming it a "violation of the sovereignty of Pakistan".

But beneath the terms of the key deal, whereas Pakistanis might not are informed of the assault, they’d agreed to it in principle.

A senior Pakistani official said it had been struck beneath Musharraf and renewed by the military throughout the "transition to democracy" – a six-month amount from February 2008 when Musharraf was still president however a civilian government had been elected.

Referring to the assault on Bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound, the official added: "As so much as our yank friends are involved, they need simply implemented the agreement."

The former US official said the Pakistani protests of the past week were the "public face" of the deal. "We knew they might deny these things."

The agreement is per Pakistan’s unspoken policy towards CIA drone strikes within the tribal belt, that was revealed by the WikiLeaks US embassy cables last November. In August 2008, Gilani reportedly told a US official: "I do not care if they are doing it, as long as they get the proper individuals. We’ll protest within the National Assembly and then ignore it."

As drone strikes have escalated within the tribal belt over the past year, senior civilian and military officers issued professional forma denunciations at the same time as it became clear the Pakistani military was co-operating with the covert programme.

The former US official said that impetus for the co-operation, very similar to the Bin Laden deal, was driven by the US. "It did not return from Musharraf’s want. On the Predators, we have a tendency to created it terribly clear to them that if they weren’t reaching to prosecute these targets, we were, and there was nothing they may do to prevent us taking unilateral action.

"We told them, over and again: ‘We’ll stop the Predators if you’re taking these targets out yourselves.’"

Despite many makes an attempt to contact his London workplace, the Guardian has been unable to get comment from Musharraf.

Since Bin Laden’s death, Pakistan has return beneath intense US scrutiny, together with accusations that parts at intervals Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence helped hide the al-Qaida leader.

On Sunday, President Barack Obama said Bin Laden should have had "some style of support network" within Pakistan.

"We do not know whether or not there might need been some individuals inside government, outside of presidency, and that is one thing we’ve got to research," Obama said.

Gilani has stood firmly by the ISI, describing it as a "national asset", and said claims that Pakistan was "in cahoots" with al-Qaida were "disingenuous".

"Allegations of complicity or incompetence are absurd," he said. "We did not invite Osama bin Laden to Pakistan."

Gilani said the military had launched an investigation into how Bin Laden managed to cover within Pakistan. Senior generals can provides a briefing on the furore to parliament next Friday.

Gilani paid lip-service to the alliance with America and welcomed a forthcoming visit from the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, however pointedly paid tribute to assist from China, whom he described as "a supply of inspiration for the individuals of Pakistan".

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