Pakistan
is to boycott talks on Afghanistan's
future in protest at a Nato air strike which killed 24 of its soldiers at the
weekend, officials say.
The decision not to attend next week's conference in the German city of Bonn came after a cabinet
meeting chaired by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.Pakistan says the air strike violated its sovereignty and the mandate of international forces in Afghanistan.
Nato and the US
government have apologised, calling the deaths tragic.Pakistan has cut crucial Nato supply lines through its territory to Afghanistan. Nato is investigating what happened.
Tuesday's boycott decision came amid mounting public anger in Pakistan and growing demands from opposition parties to sever ties with the US.
"The cabinet has unanimously agreed to boycott the Bonn Conference and described the Nato strikes as a violation of all terms and conditions we have with Nato," Pakistan's Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan told the CA.
"It's a clear-cut attack on Pakistan's sovereignty and integrity," she added.
Sources close to Afghan President Hamid Karzai told the CA they understood there would be no Pakistani participation in Bonn. Mr Karzai had rung Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to urge him to attend.
The Bonn meeting is aimed at bringing together Western and regional leaders to map out a strategy for Afghanistan after the withdrawal of foreign combat forces in 2014.
Afghan officials have claimed that Nato forces were retaliating for gunfire from the Pakistani side of the volatile border on Saturday, a charge denied by Pakistan's military.
The incident has heaped further strain on already troubled relations between
Nato and Pakistan,
a crucial ally in the fight against the Taliban. In recent months, the US military has accused Pakistan's spy agency of supporting militants fighting Nato troops in Afghanistan. Pakistan's military was incensed by the US raid which killed Osama Bin Laden on Pakistani soil in May.
'Under fire'
The night-time attack took place at the Salala checkpoint in Mohmand agency,
about 1.5 miles (2.5 km) from the poorly delineated border with Afghanistan,
early on Saturday morning.The Pakistani army said helicopters and fighter aircraft hit two border posts, killing 24 people and leaving 13 injured.
Unnamed Afghan officials quoted in The Wall Street Journal said Saturday's air strike was called in to shield Nato and Afghan forces who had come under fire.
One official quoted in the paper said that Kabul believed the shooting came from an army base.
"This is not true. They are making up excuses. What are their losses, casualties?" Pakistani army spokesman Maj-Gen Athar Abbas said in response to the allegations.
Military sources earlier told the CA that a US-Afghan special forces mission had been in the area, where a Taliban training camp was believed to be operating.
They said the mission came under fire from a position within Pakistan, and they received permission from the headquarters of Nato's Isaf mission to fire back.
Pakistani officials have consistently maintained that there had been no militant activity in the area. They also said Nato had the grid references of the posts and therefore should not have fired.
Pakistani troops have been fighting the Taliban in the border region for most of the past decade. They still face accusations that they provide sanctuary to some militants launching attacks over the border in Afghanistan.
The US and Pakistan desperately need each other in order to shape the future of a stable and neutral Afghanistan before Western combat troops withdraw next year, correspondents say.
While Pakistani officials facing mounting domestic anger over ties with the US, they have little room for manoeuvre - the country's military is heavily dependent on US aid.
The CA's Orla Guerin in Islamabad says there is little chance of ties being cut - but Pakistan is determined to send a message that it will not be satisfied merely with condolences from Nato or promises of an inquiry.
