PAKISTAN agreed to reopen key supply routes into Afghanistan on Tuesday (July 3), ending a bitter stand-off after US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said she was sorry for the loss of life in a botched air raid.
A US official said as part of the deal Washington will release about $1.1bn to the Pakistani military from a US "coalition support fund" designed to reimburse Pakistan for the cost of counter-insurgency operations.
The money had been frozen due to the tensions between the two countries.
The agreement ends a seven-month diplomatic row that had seen US-Pakistan ties, already soured by the US killing of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, plunge to a new low and gravely impede US and NATO efforts in Afghanistan.
The breakthrough, announced by Clinton after she spoke by telephone to Pakistani foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar, follows months of negotiations.
Islamabad, a key but wary ally in the fight against Taliban militants, had steadfastly insisted Washington should apologize for the November attack when a US aircraft mistakenly killed 24 Pakistan soldiers.
"Foreign Minister Khar and I acknowledged the mistakes that resulted in the loss of Pakistani military lives," Clinton said in a statement.
"We are sorry for the losses suffered by the Pakistani military. We are committed to working closely with Pakistan and Afghanistan to prevent this from ever happening again."
Pakistan confirmed it had decided to reopen the routes into Afghanistan, which are vital as the US and its NATO allies withdraw troops and equipment from Afghanistan ahead of a 2014 deadline.
"The meeting of Pakistan's defense committee (DCC) of the cabinet has decided to reopen the NATO supplies," the minister of information, Qamar Zaman Kaira, told reporters in Islamabad.
Pakistan's new Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, who chaired the meeting, also acknowledged it was time to end the blockade.
