ISLAMABAD, April 5: The United States and Pakistan will hold talks next week in Washington on bolstering cooperation in the fight against terrorism, officials said on Saturday.

A four-member Pakistani delegation led by Interior Secretary Tasneem Noorani will attend the meeting being held within the framework of the Joint Working Group on Counter Terrorism (JWGCT) established in May last year.

The talks scheduled for April 11 will mark the second meeting of the JWGCT which last met in Islamabad in September.

“The meeting will mainly focus on the subject of Pakistan’s support to the US in the fight against terrorism and review the progress of border security programme and other law enforcement reforms,” said an official statement here.

Washington has sanctioned a $73-million assistance package to Pakistani law enforcement agencies including aircraft, training in police investigation and communication equipment.

The statement said Pakistan would raise the issue of around 50 of its nationals taken prisoners in Afghanistan and currently held at the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

The US government would be requested to assist Pakistan in establishing Automated Fingerprint Identification System and a national crime data-base in order to counter the global threat of terrorism, it said. —AFP