22 January 2004	Thursday	29 Ziqa'ad 1424

BRUSSELS, Jan 21: The European Parliament will take another look by the end of next month at a European Union cooperation agreement signed with Pakistan in 2001 but still pending ratification by the EU assembly.

Sources said the parliament wanted to wait until a ministerial team, led by Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen and including EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten, visited Pakistan in the middle of February and reported back to EU governments on its assessment of the situation in the country.

"We will return to discussions on the agreement after the EU's visit to Pakistan," Euro MP John Cushnahan, who is also the parliament's rapporteur on Pakistan, told Dawn.

The parliament suspended procedures to ratify the EU-Pakistan agreement - signed in the aftermath of Pakistan's support for the US-led campaign against the Taliban - in 2002, voicing concern at the human rights situation in the country.

The high-level EU visit to Pakistan is a sign that relations between the two sides are improving, with the EU now especially anxious to encourage the recent thaw in EU-India ties.

Mr Cowen and Mr Patten will also be visiting India. Separately, Mr Cushnahan said he was continuing the parliament's fact-finding mission drive on Kashmir with a visit to occupied Jammu and Kashmir planned for mid-March.

Mr Cushnahan, who on Wednesday presented a "factual report" to the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee on his visit to Azad Kashmir in December, said it was important that the EU assembly got first-hand information on the situation on both sides of the Line of Control. If the EU decided to develop a policy on Kashmir, the parliament should be able to contribute to discussions, he said.