ISLAMABAD, May 18: Pakistan on Thursday confirmed it was negotiating an agreement with the 26-member North Atlantic Treaty Organisation for the transit facility Nato had sought for its peace mission in Afghanistan.

“We are in the process of negotiating an agreement with Nato and it would be specific to the Nato peace mission in Afghanistan,” Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam told Dawn.

She said the agreement would be on the same lines as the one formalised with the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf).

The foreign ministry and military authorities were involved in the ongoing negotiations, she said, adding the transit facility would be confined to logistic support and was not for military operations.

The spokesperson was non-committal when asked when the agreement was expected to be signed.

Under the agreement Pakistan will open its airspace and airfields to Nato aircraft carrying equipment and personnel to Afghanistan. Nato will pay a transit fee for the facility.

The matter was one of the main talking points at Nato deputy secretary-general’s meetings here last week. He discussed it with President Gen Pervez Musharraf besides officials of the foreign ministry and defence establishment.

After the meeting, the deputy secretary-general announced that Nato would soon appoint a liaison officer in Islamabad to coordinate its operations in Afghanistan.

Nato has expanded its role in Afghanistan and taken over the command of the 37-nation Isaf which is expected to enhance its current strength of about 9,000 to around 15,000.