ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari left for Chicago on Friday to attend a summit being held there on Sunday and Monday to discuss the war in Afghanistan.

Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the president had left before dawn, and sources in the presidency said he had reached London from where he would proceed to Chicago where he would be joined by Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani.

The president would meet leaders of a number of countries during the visit, the spokesman said.

The White House said that so far there’s no plan for a separate bilateral meeting between US President Barack Obama and President Zardari, our correspondent in Washington adds.

Briefing journalists on the two-day conference, US National Security Adviser Tom Donilon said President Zardari was coming with his foreign minister and foreign secretary, and he would attend in the meetings on Sunday.

He noted that leaders from 61 countries would attend the summit and President Obama could not have bilateral meetings with all of them.

“There’s not a plan at this point to have a separate bilateral meeting with President Zardari, but President Obama will see him during the course of the sessions that we have in Chicago,” he said.

Mr Donilon also noted that the United States and Pakistan had “made real progress” towards reopening the ground supply lines to Afghanistan, closed since the Nov 26 incident at Salala where 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed.

“The key government groups in Islamabad have instructed their negotiators to move to conclude these negotiations. We have our negotiators out there as well, and we’re making progress towards that,” Mr Donilon said. “Whether that will be done in the next few days or not I can’t judge at this point, but it’s been a decision on both sides to reach a conclusion of this going forward. And that’s important, obviously, for us.”

A journalist reminded him that a Pakistani lawyer had filed a suit, seeking legal action against drone strikes which, the lawyer claims, have killed many innocent civilians.

“Are you afraid that this is going to have an effect not only on the drone programme but also on diplomatic relations with Pakistan?” the journalist asked.

“I really can’t comment on either a lawsuit or specific efforts. I can speak generally, though, about it,” Mr Donilon replied.

“We have undertaken, from the outset of this administration, a determined and targeted effort, which was really critical against Al Qaeda and associated forces who intend to do harm to the United States. And that effort has been successful,” he said.

“That effort is carefully overseen by the White House, by the president, and by senior members of the administration, and carried out in consistent with international law, domestic law, ethics and rules of war.”

Responding to another question, Mr Donilon said it would be appropriate to talk about providing compensation to the victims of the US air raid in Salala. But he said he did not know if compensation was ultimately paid in that case.