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British Foreign Secretary William Hague is scheduled to arrive in Pakistan on Tuesday, hours after the US technical team left Pakistan, apparently to help the two estranged allies resolve their deadlock over a US apology and Pakistan's reopening of NATO supplies. Hague would meet Foreign Affairs minister Hina Rabbani Khar to discuss the outcome of the exhaustive U.S.-Pak technical level talks, reopening of NATO supplies, regional security as well as Pak-UK bilateral ties, reports The Nation. Senior government officials said Hague's visit was more to help finalise the price tag between Pakistan and NATO for reopening of ground supplies of the western military alliance which was blocked by Pakistan after a deadly U.S. air strike on Salala border post that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November last year. They were upbeat that standoff between Pakistan and the United States over the apology issue and price tag would be resolved soon under an amicable package deal Pakistan has been seeking in technical talks with the US spanning over six weeks. Earlier, sources in the U.S. Embassy, commenting on the U.S. team's decision to leave Pakistan , maintained that it was a technical team, which has been negotiating technical issues with the country. According to the U.S. Embassy's acting spokesperson Robert Raines, the team left Pakistan after wrapping up technical issues, including the price tag for NATO goods. He dismissed the notion that the issue related to tendering of a U.S. apology was in the talks agenda.

British Foreign Secretary in Islamabad to break Pak-US impasse