Rome, 17 May: The European Union needs to engage with Pakistan over a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) if it is serious about promoting regional security in South Asia, says Humayun Akhtar Khan, Pakistan's commerce minister.

In an interview with Adnkronos International in Rome, Khan said that because of its "definite strategic and security concerns in Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq, the EU needs stability in Pakistan." If the EU is not granting market access to Pakistan "then it is not helping us at all," said Khan, currently on a tour to muster support in European capitals for Pakistan's case.

Mr Khan said he had had "positive" meetings with Italy's foreign minister Massimo D'Alema and Overseas Trade Minister Emma Bonino in Rome on Thursday.

"The EU is Pakistan's largest trading partner," the minister told AKI, yet unless Brussels changes its stance, Islamabad risks being the only country in the region without key access to the European markets at zero duty.

Negotiations on a trade pact are underway with Pakistan's neighbour and arch rival India. The five other less developed countries in South Asia have zero-duty access to the EU under separate bilateral deals.

The criterion that is being adopted in the EU's aggressive striking of FTA's is "high growth and high tariffs" and that, Khan argued, punishes Pakistan "because it has undergone a liberalisation process, which has seen tariffs lowered."

The minister said "If you want to combat extremism you have to fight poverty," he added. "If Pakistan exports one billion garments to the EU that creates jobs for 200,000 people," said Khan, "and if you take a family average of five or six people that benefits one million people."— AKI