WASHINGTON, July 13: Pakistan remains committed to moving Nato supply trucks through ground communication lines to Afghanistan, says the US State Department as the two countries work on a memorandum of understanding to regulate the supplies.

“The Pakistanis continue to be committed to getting things moving,” State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell told a briefing in Washington.

“We are working together to put in place a range of technical measures and instructions necessary for transit.”

On Thursday, officials at the Foreign Office told reporters in Islamabad that the US and Pakistan would soon sign a memorandum of understanding to regulate trucks carrying supplies for Nato troops in Afghanistan.

Reports in the Pakistani media claimed that the government had decided to scrap a Musharraf-era agreement with the United States because it felt the old arrangement had created problems for both countries.

“We’re confident that these procedures will be put in place and allow many more trucks to move expeditiously,” said Mr Ventrell when asked for comments on these reports.

He noted that since Pakistan reopened the supply routes, several containers had already moved across the border into Afghanistan.

“We also understand that the process of activating the supply routes has only just begun and that it will take time for the backlog to be cleared,” he added.The United States, he said, was looking forward to the backlog being decreased as the arrangement moved forward.