ISLAMABAD, Sept 29: Pakistan and the US have agreed to undertake 18 projects costing $3 million in various fields of science and technology, says a press release.

The projects will be launched in the fields of education, human resource development, environment, medicine, advanced computing, meteorology, standards, quality control and water resources with the aim to establish linkages between centres of scientific excellence in the two countries.

The agreement to launch these projects was reached jointly following the first meeting of Pakistan-US joint committee on science and technology cooperation. The meeting, jointly chaired by Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health, Space and Science, US State Department, Dr Lee Morin and Joint Technological Adviser, Ministry of Science and Technology, Engr Shehryar Khan, also discussed ways to further strengthen cooperation in the field of science and technology.

The two sides agreed to enhance cooperation following February 2002 Camp David meeting between President Gen Pervez Musharraf and President George W. Bush. Subsequently through the June 2003 agreement the two countries established a legal framework to expand US-Pakistan cooperation for peaceful purposes between public and private entities from the US and Pakistani scientific communities.

Higher Education Commission Chairman Dr Attaur Rehman and Dr Normen Neureiter, the then science adviser to US Secretary of State Colin Powell, laid the foundation for the programme of cooperation.

Meanwhile, the US delegation also met Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Nouraiz Shakoor Khan early Wednesday to discuss mutual cooperation in science and technology.