An EU delegation led by foreign policy chief Javier Solana began talks with top officials here Tuesday to bolster Pakistan's participation in an international coalition against terrorism.
The EU team -- including Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel, Spanish counterpart Josep Pique and EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten -- was expected to discuss humanitarian aid and enhanced economic cooperation with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
Speaking on the plane before the team's arrival, Patten congratulated Musharraf for his "brave" support for the US-led war on terrorism following the suicide hijackings on Sept. 11.
"We recognize the brave decision which President Musharraf and the people of Pakistan have taken," he said.
Patten said the delegation would seek further assurances of Pakistan's commitment to end terrorism without forgetting the country's economic and humanitarian needs.
"Good can come from evil and I very much hope that one effect of what's happened is that we will be able to open up new doors and new opportunities," he said, referring to Pakistan and neighboring Iran.
In exchange for Pakistan's cooperation with possible attacks against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, Washington Monday waived nuclear-related sanctions imposed in the 1990s.
The US government also rescheduled some US$379 million in Pakistani debt and interest repayments.
Islamabad will be seeking the EU's backing in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund over a request for some US$2.5 billion in loans.
Pakistani officials said the EU team met Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar at the start of their program yesterday. They were also due to visit Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz.
A diplomatic source said the EU would offer humanitarian aid amid fears of a refugee crisis if the US attacks Afghanistan, with more than a million people believed to have fled their homes in the past two weeks.
Pakistan already hosts around two million Afghan refugees and the number has swelled by 180,000 since September last year.
The mission follows an emergency summit of EU leaders on Friday that called for a broad global coalition against terrorism, and supported as "legitimate" US plans to strike back.
"It's not a fight or a battle against a particular religion or particular countries -- on the contrary," Solana said Monday after he conferred with NATO Secretary General George Robertson in Brussels.
"That's the reason why we're doing so much, from the EU, to get as many countries of the Arab world with us as possible."
The mission is also to visit Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan in an effort to further encourage Muslim nations to support the coalition.
Iran and Syria have already indicated some support, but the Europeans have said the carnage of Sept. 11 which is now believed to have claimed almost 7,000 lives could "open new doors" for international cooperation.
In an interview published Monday in the French newspaper Le Figaro, Michel said the EU delegation would give certain countries "a chance to make a new strategic choice" and stressed the US-led coalition was "against terrorism, against fanatics, but not against Islam."
The EU delegation's visit to Pakistan coincided with that of a team of US defense officials, who have been holding talks on Islamabad's cooperation with a possible attack on Afghanistan.
A Pakistani government spokesman said the discussions were designed to prepare the ground for a second US delegation which would arrive at a later, unspecified date.
"This is not the main delegation," the spokesman told AFP. "They are just holding a preparatory meeting with their counterparts of an exploratory nature."
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