Pak to boycott meeting on Afghanistan over NATO raid

The strike Saturday along the Afghan-Pakistani border killed 24 Pakistani troops and triggered fury in Islamabad.

Hours after the incident,Islamabad said it will review all cooperation with NATO and US. The decision to boycott the Bonn conference was taken during a Pakistani Cabinet meeting in the city of Lahore,said three officials who attended the meeting. They spoke on condition of anonymity.

The December 5 meeting was to bring together Western and regional leaders to forge a strategy to stabilise Afghanistan and smooth the planned US withdrawal from the country in 2014. Pakistan is perhaps the most important regional country because of its influence on Afghan Taliban factions on its soil,and US and Pakistani officials had been urging Islamabad to attend.

Meanwhile,Afghan President Hamid Karzai Tuesday requested Pakistan to reconsider its decision to boycott the conference,saying the countrys absence would not be helpful to efforts to restore peace in the region. Karzai made the request when he made a telephone call to Gilani Tuesday afternoon to convey his condolences on the death of 24 Pakistani soldiers in the airstrike.