Pakistan leaders to discuss re-opening of NATO supplies

PAKISTAN: Pakistani leaders will meet next week to discuss ending a nearly six-month blockade on NATO supplies into Afghanistan, officials said Friday.

The meeting will also include discussions on how to repair relations with the United States in time to attend a key NATO summit later this month, the officials added.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is understood to have confirmed the date for Tuesday's meeting of the defence committee of the cabinet from London, where he is on an official visit to Britain, the second-largest contributor to the NATO mission in Afghanistan.

Pakistan shut its Afghan border crossings to NATO supplies after US air strikes inadvertently killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on November 26, provoking a major crisis in Pakistani-US relations still reeling from the covert raid that killed Osama bin Laden the previous May.

US officials expressed regret, but stopped short of apologising for the deaths that an American and NATO investigation said stemmed from mistakes made on both sides.

"A meeting of the defence committee of the cabinet has been convened on May 15. It will be followed by cabinet meeting on May 16," said one senior government official. AFP