Pakistan-India to ink pact on reducing nuke accident Risk  
'Pakistan Times' Foreign Desk

NEW DELHI (India): Pakistan and India will next month sign an agreement on reducing the risk from accidents relating to nuclear weapons, it was announced here Thursday.

The agreement on "Reducing the Risk from Accidents Relating to Nuclear Weapons" was cleared at a meeting of the cabinet committee on security chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The issue had been under discussion with Pakistan "for quite some time and now the two countries are ready to sign it", External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters after the meeting.

The pact will be signed during the visit here in February of Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri for the India-Pakistan Joint Commission Meeting. Mukherjee will sign from the Indian side.

The exact dates for Kasuri's visit were "being worked out through diplomatic channels", Mukherjee said.

India and Pakistan had reached an understanding on signing the agreement in November 2006 during the foreign secretary-level talks here and cabinet approval was awaited.●