Pakistan to boycott Afghan talks in Bonn after NATO raid

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 29 (agencies):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, eports BBC. 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 responded to the air strike by cutting key Nato supply lines through its territory to Afghanistan. Tuesday's cabinet meeting came amid mounting public anger and growing demands from Pakistan's opposition parties to sever all ties with the US. "Pakistan has decided not to attend the Bonn conference as a protest," a government official told Reuters after the cabinet talks in Lahore. Pakistan's military has denied reports that gunfire from its side of the border provoked the Nato strike on one of its checkposts. Meanwhile: European Union chief diplomat Catherine Ashton expressed condolences to Pakistan on Tuesday over a NATO air strike that killed 24 Pakistani troops and voiced support for an investigation. Ashton "is closely following reports of the incident," her office said after Saturday's raid near the Afghan border, which prompted a furious Islamabad to cut off alliance supply routes to Afghanistan. "High Representative Catherine Ashton has offered her deepest condolences to the government and people of Pakistan for the loss of life and injuries resulting from the incident along the Afghan-Pakistani border at the weekend," her office said in a statement.