U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed hope Sunday that Pakistan's recent reopening of NATO supply lines into Afghanistan might lead to a broader rapprochement in U.S.-Pakistani relations. After attending a 70-nation Afghan aid conference in Tokyo, Hillary Clinton met privately with Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar. It was their first meeting since Hillary Clinton's apology last week for the November killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers by NATO, a move that led to the end of Pakistan's seven-month blockade of the supply routes. "We are both encouraged that we've been able to put the recent difficulties behind us so we can focus on the many challenges ahead of us," Hillary Clinton told reporters. "We want to use the positive momentum generated by our recent agreement to take tangible steps on our many shared, core interests." She and Hina Rabbani Khar "focused on the necessity of defeating the terror networks that threat the stability of both Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as the interests of the United States," Hillary Clinton was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. Hillary Clinton, who joined the Pakistani minister and Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul for a three-way meeting later Sunday, said her discussions with Khar covered stalled Afghan reconciliation efforts. They spoke as well about enhancing U.S.-Pakistani economic ties to make it a relationship defined more by trade than aid. --MORE
