U.S., Pakistan to sign $1b debt waiver

U.S., Pakistan to sign $1b debt waiver

ISLAMABAD: The United States is set to sign a long-promised one billion dollar debt writeoff for key ally Pakistan, officials said Friday.

U.S. ambassador Nancy Powell and the head of Islamabad's Economic Affairs Division (EAD), Waqar Masood, are set to sign an agreement affirming the write-off on Saturday.

"Tomorrow's signing is a writeoff of one billion dollars," a finance ministry official said.

The write-off was offered by President George W. Bush in February last year during a visit to Washington by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

The U.S. had earlier rescheduled three billion dollars worth of Pakistan's foreign debt in late 2001, when it stood at US$38.5 billion. It also supported the rescheduling of another nine billion dollars by the International Monetary Fund.

The debt relief was part of a package of rewards for Pakistan's pivotal cooperation in the U.S.-led military campaign to crush the Taliban and al-Qaeda in neighboring Afghanistan.

The campaign was launched in October 2001 in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks which killed more than 3,000 people in the U.S. -- AFP