This handout photograph released by Pakistan's Press Information Department (PID) on May 15, 2012 shows Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani (L) chairing the defence committee meeting with senior cabinet ministers and military chiefs in Islamabad. – AFP

ISLAMABAD: Federal Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira on Tuesday said that meeting of the Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC) ended inconclusive and that final decision regarding resumption of Nato supplies will come after further consultations, DawnNews reported.

The meeting was chaired by Prime Minster Yousuf Raza Gilani to review Pakistan’s troubled ties with the United States and also to reflect on ways to reopen the supply routes for the allied forces fighting in Afghanistan.

“No final decision has been taken about re-opening of the Nato supply routes by the committee,” said the information minister while briefing the media representatives regarding the meeting.

However, the committee urged the concerned ministries to ‘finalise’ the terms and conditions regarding resumption of Nato supplies, which is renamed as “ground line of communication,” on priority basis.

The committee also directed the military leadership to renegotiate border security issues with the Nato and Isaf forces at the Afghan border, in order to avoid untoward incidents like Salala check post attack in future.

It was also decided to form a committee which will renegotiate Pakistan’s terms of engagement with the United States regarding new conditions, transit fee, and surcharge. It would constitute representatives from the ministry of foreign affairs, ministry of defence and GHQ.

The DCC also endorsed Nato chief’s invitation to President Asif Ali Zardari for attending the summit in Chicago.

The meeting was attended by the heads of all three forces, chairman joint chiefs of staff committee, ISI chief as well as federal ministers from defence, interior, foreign affairs, finance and information ministries.

Nato, earlier on Tuesday, invited Pakistan to key talks on the future of Afghanistan in Chicago next week as Islamabad signalled it was about to end a nearly six-month blockade on supply routes.

Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen telephoned President Asif Ali Zardari to invite him to the May 20-21 summit, Islamabad said, a day after Pakistan’s foreign minister said it was time to “move on” after US air strikes killed 24 soldiers last November.

Islamabad shut its Afghan border crossings to Nato supplies after the deaths and its relations with the United States, already frayed by the discovery of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, plunged into their worst ever crisis.

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