Talks with US progressing, not yet conclusive: FO

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US Deputy Secretary of State Tom Nides (2L) shakes hands with Pakistan's Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar (2R) prior to a meeting in Islamabad on April 4, 2012. - AFP File Photo

ISLAMABAD: A Foreign Office spokesman said on Monday that there have been significant developments in the Nato supply talks between Pakistan and the US adding that a final decision had not been reached in the meeting, DawnNews reported.

In the talks, the Pakistani delegation was led by Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar while Deputy Secretary of State Tom Nides headed the US delegation, the spokesman said.

After the negotiations in Pakistan, the US delegation had left for Kabul, the spokesman said.

Khar will brief President Asif Ali Zardari on the meeting and take him into confidence, the spokesman said.

The president is also expected to meet Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani to discuss the issue.

Developments on Coalition Support Fund (CSF)

The issue of CSF was also raised in the meeting of the American and Pakistani delegations.

Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh told Nides that without CSF payments it was difficult to control the fiscal deficit in the country.

The US assured Pakistan that it would release the CSF's first installment of 400 million dollars within a week's period while the remaining 400 million dollars would be dispatched later.

An official of the finance ministry said that the first installment would be transferred to the government’s bank account in New York.

The United States had pledged that it would give Pakistan 800 million dollars in the year 2011 for providing assistance in the 'war on terror' but due to uneven relationship between the two countries the funds had not been transferred to Pakistan.

According to the agreement, the US was bound to pay 2.5 billion dollars in total to Pakistan.

Nides assured that the US would release the entire CSF by the end of 2012.

The US stopped the CSF payments to Pakistan after its forces raided Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad.

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