NATO has signed a pact with three Central Asian countries -- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan -- which would provide a new land route to transport supplies to foreign troops in land-locked Afghanistan. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the alliance had reached an agreement on “reverse transit” from Afghanistan with three Central Asian partners. “These agreements will give us a range of new options and the robust and flexible transport network we need," Rasmussen said in a statement. NATO went for the alternative routes after Pakistan slapped a ban on ISAF supply convoys via its territory in last November, after nearly 27 Pakistani soldiers were killed in a coalition airstrike. Pakistan leaders demanded an apology besides considerably hiking tax on NATO trucks passing through the country. But talks to resolve the deadlock have not been fruitful so far. The land routes are crucial for NATO as it plans to withdraw its combat forces and equipment deployed to Afghanistan by 2014. About 130,000 are currently based across the country.
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