US to free $1.1bn coalition support fund for Pakistan

WASHINGTON: The United States will release about $1.1 billion to Pakistan as part of a deal that will see Islamabad lift a blockade on NATO supply convoys into Afghanistan, a US official said Tuesday.

The money, from a US "coalition support fund" designed to reimburse Pakistan for the cost of counter-insurgency operations, had been withheld due to tensions between the two countries and Islamabad's closure of the supply routes. (AFP)