By Paul Eckert, Asia Correspondent

WASHINGTON, Sept 5 (Reuters) - A deadly cross-border raid into Pakistan by U.S. commandos this week failed to capture anyone important and helped militants by enraging the Pakistani public, Islamabad's envoy in the United States said on Friday.

"Unilateral action by American forces does not help the war against terror because it only enrages public opinion, Ambassador Husain Haqqani said in Washington.

"In this particular incident, nothing was gained by the action of the troops," he said of the Wednesday attack on the South Waziristan village of Angor Adda that Pakistani officials said killed up to 20 people, including women and children.

The predawn helicopter-borne ground assault is the first known incursion into Pakistan by U.S.-led troops since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.

The Bush administration has not officially acknowledged any U.S. involvement in the raid. But Pentagon officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the attack targeted suspected operatives and aimed to disrupt safe havens for militants who threaten U.S., NATO and Afghan forces across the border.

Haqqani declined to discuss details of the attack or his discussions with U.S. officials on the raid, which drew a furious response from the Pakistan government.

But he said the U.S. commandos took "no one significant" and he warned that such actions "do the work of the militants by creating more support for them among the people."

"We need more Pakistanis to understand the American perspective and be sympathetic to it, rather than enrage more Pakistanis against the United States," Haqqani said in remarks at a Washington think tank.

While condemning the raid, the envoy said "we will not let this incident come between close ties and strong military, intelligence and political cooperation between our countries."

Pakistan's two-chamber parliament and four provincial assemblies will elect a new president on Saturday. Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, is expected to win.

Seeking to dispel increasing concerns voiced by the United States about Pakistan's will to fight militants, Haqqani said the elected government in Islamabad would have wider legitimacy than former president Pervez Musharraf, a military strongman who was Washington's chief ally in the war against terrorism.

Musharraf offered the United States "one phone call, one person, one decision" but failed to deliver results because decisions were "taken quickly, without prior planning and they were taken in response to some phone call or some pressure," the ambassador said.

Pakistan's democratically elected coalition government was more methodical and its troop deployments had political and legal legitimacy in a country where many people are suspicious of U.S. motives, he said.

Haqqani pointed to recent Pakistani military campaigns in Swat and tribal regions that had killed 560 people affiliated with al Qaeda or the Taliban as an example of results achieved by the new government. (Editing by Anthony Boadle)

AlertNet news is provided by