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Agenda finalised for Clinton-Sharief summit

The United States and Pakistan are understood to have finalised the agenda for the meeting between President Bill Clinton and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief scheduled to take place in Washington on December 2.

The main topics of their discussions will be Pakistan's economic strategy, its nuclear policy and global proliferation concerns and regional security, especially in the context of Islamabad's resumed wide-ranging dialogue with India.

Sharief is arriving to the US at the invitation of Clinton. The two leaders had met in New York in September during the UN General Assembly session.

Pakistani foreign secretary Shamshad Ahmed and US deputy secretary of state Strobe Talbott and assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs Karl Inderfurth, who met in Washington yesterday to finalise the details of the Clinton-Sharief meeting will continue their discussion on the non-proliferation issue today.

This was the sixth in a continuing series of high-level negotiations on non-proliferation and security issues that Talbott has been conducting with Pakistan since it nuclear Tests in May.

Talbott will have a similar meeting with Prime Minister A B Vajpayee's special envoy Jaswant Singh in Rome on November 19.

In addition to the important non-proliferation issues, Talbott and Ahmed will have discussions will on a full range of relevant matters, including terrorism, narcotics, the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan's strategy for addressing its economic difficulties, according to State Department spokesman James Rubin.

He said, ''On the non-proliferation side, clearly we've made steady progress, but there are important issues where we need to nail down commitments to deal with important non-proliferation concerns and important issues that still need to be resolved."

According to reports, Pakistan is expected to ask for US assistance to meet its foreign exchange crisis. It had applied for a loan from the International Monetary Fund, which the US supports.

Though Clinton, through a legislative measure, has acquired powers to waive sanctions to help India and Pakistan, the administration has made clear that he will consider such a step only after substantial progress in the non-proliferation dialogue.

The US had imposed economic sanctions on India and Pakistan in protest against their nuclear tests.

The US wants both India and Pakistan to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty which the five main nuclear powers -- the United States, Russia, France, Britain and China -- and many other countries have signed.

Pakistan has expressed its willingness to sign the CTBT but in return in wants lifting of the US sanctions which have begun to have an adverse impact on its economy.

UNI

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