ISLAMABAD, May 16, (AFP): Pakistan’s cabinet met Wednesday, expected to endorse the country’s attendance at key talks on Afghanistan in Chicago and edge towards lifting a blockade on overland NATO supplies to its war-torn neighbour.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told ministers that Pakistan, which shut the transit lines in November after US air strikes killed 24 of its soldiers, should not take “emotional decisions, which do not augur well for us in the long run”.

He said relations with NATO and the United States were at “a delicate phase where we need to take critical decisions” for Pakistan’s “strategic importance” in the region and in its national interest. Army commanders also met on Wednesday to discuss the matter.

The US air strikes plunged Pakistan’s relations with the United States, already frayed by the discovery of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, into their worst crisis since Pakistan joined the US-led war effort in 2001.
By going to Chicago, Pakistan hopes to ease its international isolation and boost its leverage over the future of Afghanistan, as Western countries pull out their combat forces by 2014.

But Islamabad has been essentially forced to climb down on demands for an American apology for the air strikes and an end to drone strikes targeting Taliban and Al-Qaeda     on its soil.

Analysts say Pakistan had no choice but capitulate to international pressure to reopen the border, with US cash needed to help boost its meagre state coffers as the government prepares to seek re-election.
On Tuesday, the cabinet’s defence committee, which includes security chiefs and top ministers, welcomed a NATO invitation for President Asif Ali Zardari to attend the summit and cleared the way for him to attend.

It also authorised negotiations to conclude on new terms and conditions for resuming the transit of fuel and other non-lethal items needed by NATO troops in their decade-long fight against the Taliban.
No timeframe has been announced for reopening the borders.

“We want solutions of the problems and it is in line with this policy that we are trying to sort out the
issue,” Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira told AFP.

The State Department said “considerable progress” had been made on ending the blockade, which halted thousands of fuel and supply trucks from the port city of Karachi to two Afghan border crossings.
“We will continue to work on this throughout the week. Obviously, it’ll be a wonderful signal if we can get it done by the time of the summit,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

But the Pakistani government is likely to face an angry backlash over the U-turn from opposition, right-wing and religious parties keen to exploit rampant anti-Americanism in an election year.
Nor is lifting the blockade likely to solve other problems in the relationship between Pakistan and the United States.

American officials remain deeply distrustful of Pakistan, which provides sanctuary to Taliban and other Afghan insurgents fighting US troops.