国际英语新闻：Pakistan says no decision to restore NATO supplies

ISLAMABAD, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan said Thursday that no decision has been made to restore supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan and a decision will be taken after the security situation is improved.

Pakistan, in an apparent retaliation to NATO airstrikes last week killing three Pakistani soldiers, had immediately blocked all NATO supplies trucks from crossing the border checkpoint to Afghanistan.

The blockade continued on an 8th day on Thursday and the Foreign Ministry said that there is no date for the reopening of the NATO supply route.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit told a weekly briefing that Pakistan has not yet allowed NATO tankers and trucks carrying supplies for foreign troops in Afghanistan.

"A decision to restore NATO supplies will be taken soon after reviewing the security situation," the spokesman said.

He said investigation into the NATO airstrikes has been completed and the NATO and the U.S. have tendered apology over deaths of Pakistani soldiers. He did not give any details about the joint investigation.

On Wednesday, the United States tendered a formal apology to Pakistan over the killing of three security troops in the Kurram tribal agency on Sept. 30.

The NATO says that blockade of the supplies will not affect the war in Afghanistan.

A joint investigation of the incident had established that the U.S helicopters had mistaken the Pakistani Frontier Scouts for insurgents they had been pursuing, a U.S. embassy statement said.

The NATO Secretary General in meeting with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in Brussels this week also expressed regret over the incident.

A NATO spokesman in Afghanistan had earlier defended the strike into Pakistani territory with the argument that the militants had fired at an Afghan post from the Pakistani side.

The militants stepped up attacks on NATO supplies trucks in Pakistan and there had been four major attacks since the NATO air raids.

On Wednesday, unidentified gunmen carried out two attacks on NATO supplies vehicles in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta and northwestern city of Nowshehra, burning some 50 oil tankers. Days earlier militants attacked NATO tankers in Shikarpur, a main city in southern Sindh province.