Pakistan has officially withdrawn from an international conference on Afghanistan, Germany's foreign ministry said on Friday, saying that it regretted the boycott. Pakistan said on Tuesday it planned to pull out of the meeting in reaction to a cross-border attack by Nato that killed 24 of its soldiers and plunged US-Pakistani relations deeper into crisis.
Foreign Minister Rabbani Khar told his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle in a telephone call late on Friday that his country would not send a delegation, but wished the conference success, the ministry said. Germany had held out hope it could talk Pakistan into attending the conference, which takes place in Bonn next week. "Minister Westerwelle said he regretted the declined invitation and promised that Pakistan would be kept closely informed about the progress and results of the conference," the ministry said.