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New York:  Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani today asked Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar to cut short a visit to the US and return to Pakistan even as the army’s top commanders held a special meeting against the backdrop of mounting tensions with the US over ISI’s links with terror groups.

Mr Gilani asked Ms Khar, who was representing Pakistan at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, to return to the country immediately, TV news channels quoted official sources as saying. Ms Khar is expected to fly back to Islamabad tonight.

The premier had earlier called off his visit to the US and sent Ms Khar in his place. Though Mr Gilani said he had cancelled the visit to oversee relief operations in flood-hit areas, reports said he had decided not to go to the US after President Barack Obama refused to meet him on the sidelines of the UN meet.

Mr Gilani is also convening an all-party meeting. President Asif Ali Zardari, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and other senior leaders across party lines are expected to attend the meeting.

Earlier in the day, Pakistan Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani chaired a six-hour special meeting of his Corps Commanders to review the security situation against the backdrop of mounting tensions with the US over its assertion that the military-run Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had links to the Haqqani network.

There was no official word on what transpired during the meeting but Geo News channel reported that the army commanders rejected the US accusations. They decided to give a "fitting response" to any cross-border attacks by militants based in Afghanistan, the channel reported. The army commanders reportedly  agreed that General Kayani would meet President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani to take the political leadership into confidence.

Mr Gilani too spent a busy day contacting leaders of different political parties to develop consensus on the US accusations. While Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman called on Mr Gilani, the premier also spoke on phone with PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Altaf Hussain, Awami National Party chief Asfandyar Wali Khan, PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Jamaat-e-Islami head Munawar Hassan.

In a related development, Pakistan’s second highest ranking military officer expressed "concern about the negative statements emanating from the US". General Khalid Shameem Wynne, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, made the remarks during a meeting this morning with visiting US Central Command chief General James Mattis. General Wynne called for "addressing the irritants" in the Pakistan-US relationship which are "a result of an extremely complex situation", a military statement said.

There has been a sharp escalation of rhetoric between Pakistan and the US following American military chief Admiral Mike Mullen’s accusation that the ISI is backing the Haqqani network, blamed for a string of high-profile terror attacks, including a recent assault on the US Embassy in Kabul.

Pakistan had angrily rejected the allegations, with General Kayani saying they were not "based on facts". Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar had warned that the US risked losing its partnership with Pakistan if it continued criticising Islamabad.