Yousuf Raza Gilani says Hillary Clinton has assured him there will be no more unilateral raids, contradicting US officials' claims

Pakistan's prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, says he has received US assurances there will be no repeat of the unilateral raid that killed Osama Bin Laden in May.

Gilani's remarks, in an interview with the Guardian, contradict assertions by the US president, Barack Obama, and other American officials that US forces would take similar action against other al-Qaida leaders if necessary.

Gilani was speaking in London at a time when Pakistani relations with the west, particularly the US, are at a low in the wake of the raid on Bin Laden's hideout in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad on 2 May.

After the special forces operation, US officials voiced suspicions that Bin Laden must have had a network of local supporters, possibly inside the Pakistani state, while Pakistani leaders were outraged not to have been consulted over the raid inside their territory.

"Since we were sharing information with US and there was a tremendous relationship with the CIA and ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence], therefore we could have done a joint operation in Abbottabad, but it didn't happen. Therefore we had a lot of reservations," Gilani said.

He added: "They have assured us in future there will be no unilateral actions in Pakistan, and there would be co-operation between both agencies."

The Pakistani prime minister said he had received the assurance personally from the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. In her public statements, however, Clinton has declared the US would strike unilaterally against other top militants if others did not.

She said in May: "We've made it clear to people around the world that if we locate someone who has been part of the al-Qaida leadership, then you get him or we will get him."

Speaking to the BBC just before his visit to Britain the same month, Obama was equally blunt on the issue. He said: "We are very respectful of the sovereignty of Pakistan. But we cannot allow someone who is planning to kill our people or our allies' people – we can't allow those kind of active plans to come to fruition without us taking some action."

On Thursday, however, Gilani said any repeat of the Abbottabad raid would be "totally unacceptable".

"Public opinion would further aggravate against the United States and you cannot fight a war without the support of the masses. You need the masses to support military actions against militants," he said.

He said another raid would damage "not only our relationship, but also our common objective, to fight against militants. We are fighting a war and if we fail that means that it's not good for the world. We can't afford losing."

After the raid against Bin Laden, the Pakistani government said it had stopped the US launching drones from its territory in pursuit of militants in tribal areas. Nevertheless, drone strikes on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan have continued.

"We don't allow our bases to be used. They have other bases they use," Gilani said. Asked where those bases were, he replied: "I don't know. You ask the Americans. This is a question to put to them."

The prime minister said: "Drone attacks are against our strategy too, because we have been isolating the militants from the local population and when there are drone attacks they get united again."

Gilani deflected questions on some of the other irritants in US-Pakistan relations. On the allegation this month by the US chairman of the joint chief of staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, that the Pakistani government had "sanctioned" the killing of journalist Saleem Shahzad, the prime minister said Mullen should present his evidence to the inquiry into the killing. He said he was not aware if the American had done so.

On FBI allegations this week that the Pakistani military, including the ISI, had spent $4m (£2.4m) on trying to influence US policy on Kashmir in Pakistan's favour, and the arrest of a Kashmir separatist lobbyist alleged to have been involved, Gilani claimed he was not sufficiently well informed to comment. "I have been travelling. I don't have full information," he said.

On Wednesday night, Gilani told an audience of British and Pakistani business leaders at a London hotel that his country's most important foreign relationship was with China.

"China is a rising power and Pakistan's all-weather friend. This is a relationship that has no parallel. Uniquely, there are no downs but only ups in Pakistan-China relations. China is a source of pride and strength for us," Gilani said.

The emphasis on the Chinese relationship has been a Pakistani government theme since the raid on Abbottabad and the cutting of US aid to Pakistan, but Gilani denied Islamabad was playing one world power off against another.

"We want to have relationships with both China and the United States. We don't want to lose our relationship with the United States. We want to improve our relationship with the US [on the basis of] mutual respect and mutual interest," the prime minister said.

However, he made it clear there was some way to go before that state was achieved. "It will take some time," he said. "There can't be a quick fix."

Amid near-constant sniping from Washington, Gilani's government found support from General David Petraeus, the departing US commander in Afghanistan who is soon to become CIA chief.

"I do believe they want to eliminate the al-Qaida presence and I do believe they want to eliminate the Taliban Pakistani presence," Petraeus told journalists in Paris.

According to Reuters news agency, he said "it is credible [Pakistan] did not know" Bin Laden was hiding in Abbottabad.