ISLAMABAD, Jan 5: President Asif Ali Zardari will make his first official trip to Afghanistan on Tuesday, a government official told AFP.

Mr Zardari had been due to visit Kabul last month for talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on how to tackle the resurgent Taliban, but his plane was unable to leave Islamabad due to bad weather.

The official, who asked not to be named, told AFP the one-day trip would now go ahead on Tuesday. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had said last month that Zardari would visit Afghanistan “in the first week of January, Inshallah.”

The Pakistani leader “expressed the hope that his forthcoming visit to Afghanistan would contribute to enhanced cooperation in the areas of security, counter-terrorism and economic development,” a foreign ministry statement said.—AFP