WASHINGTON, May 15: The US State Department has delinked Nato’s decision to invite Pakistan to the Chicago summit from an expected deal on reopening Nato supply lines to Afghanistan.

At a regular briefing at the State Department on Tuesday, spokesperson Victoria Nuland emphasised Pakistan’s key role in the Afghan dispute and said that’s why it was invited to next week’s Nato summit in Chicago.

“We …and all of our Nato partners considered it important to have Pakistan … at the summit in Chicago. So the invitation has in fact been issued,” she said.

Ms Nuland noted that US and Pakistani officials were still negotiating a deal for reopening Nato supply routes to Afghanistan, which Pakistan closed after a Nov 26 US air raid killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

“We are continuing our discussions with the Pakistanis. Our technical team is still there (in Islamabad). We are making progress. We have not yet completed an agreement,” she said.

“We do consider the agreement important.”

“Do you want Pakistan at the summit even if they’re being incredibly unhelpful and actually hindering the mission rather than helping it with the supply line closure?” a journalist asked.

“As a neighbour of Afghanistan, Pakistan does have an important role to play in supporting Afghan security. We do want to see these land routes opened,” Ms Nuland replied.

“We are continuing to work on it. But we thought it was important to have them at the summit in this partnership role.”

Asked if it was a reasonable expectation that the deal will be finalised before the summit, Ms Nuland said: “We are making progress and we will continue to work on this throughout the week.”

The United States, she said, would welcome the Pakistani gesture if the deal was done before the summit but it was not a precondition.

“Obviously, it’ll be a wonderful signal if we can get it done by the time of the summit, but we decided nonetheless, Nato countries all together decided that it was important to have Pakistan in the Isaf meeting,” the US official added.

A journalist, however, reminded her that this must be a new decision as until Friday both the US and Nato wanted the deal first.

“As I said, we are making progress in these conversations. We are not finished yet, but we are making some good progress and we are going to continue to work on it all the way through the week and as long as it takes,” Ms Nuland explained.

Ms Nuland noted that Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar’s statement on Monday indicating that Pakistan was ready to sign the deal was part of the progress the two sides were making on this issue.

“We do welcome the comments that she made. I think they’re part and parcel of the progress that we’re making in our conversation together. But it’s not finished until it’s finished,” the State Department official said.

But a journalist pointed out that three major issues between the US and Pakistan still remained unresolved. Two of these were Pakistan’s demands for an apology over the Nov 26 incident and an immediate halt to all drone strikes.

Equally important, the journalist added, was the US demand that Pakistan stop supporting the Haqqani network.

“Are you stuck on these issues?” the journalist asked.

“All the issues that you’ve mentioned have been discussed in the context of the larger re-engagement conversation that we’re having with Pakistan in the wake of their parliamentary review,” Ms Nuland replied. “An additional issue in those conversations is the technical discussion about opening the ground lines.”