KABUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Next week’s Bonn conference on Afghanistan was supposed to offer a chance to renew Western commitment to stabilize the Asian nation as foreign troops head home after a decade battling the Taliban.

Instead it looks set to be a high-profile reminder of the West’s tortuous ties with a country where they have spent billions of dollars, and of Afghanistan’s uncertain future as NATO nations facing economic crisis at home try to pull loose from a costly war some believe can no longer be won outright.

A strategic partnership pact between Washington and Kabul that was expected to provide a framework for Monday’s meeting in Bonn of officials from dozens of nations has not been pinned down in time — and may take months more to secure.

Pakistan, an insecure but powerful neighbor and perhaps the single most critical player in efforts to end Afghan violence, is boycotting the meet after NATO aircraft killed 24 of its soldiers in a weekend attack the alliance called a “tragic … accident”.

Hopes that Taliban representatives would attend and herald a breakthrough in reconciliation efforts have also faded.

And hanging over the whole meeting will be the weight of a decade in which thousands of lives and billions of dollars have failed to secure Afghanistan and achieved only fragile gains in education and women’s rights, falling well short of the promises made at a conference ten years ago in the same city.

“There is definitely a sharp contrast between this Bonn conference and 2001, when there was hope and enthusiasm in the air and a desire to move beyond the Taliban and do reconstruction,” said Kamran Bokhari, vice-president for South Asian affairs at political risk analysts Stratfor.

KABUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Next week’s Bonn conference on Afghanistan was supposed to offer a chance to renew Western commitment to stabilize the Asian nation as foreign troops head home after a decade battling the Taliban.

Instead it looks set to be a high-profile reminder of the West’s tortuous ties with a country where they have spent billions of dollars, and of Afghanistan’s uncertain future as NATO nations facing economic crisis at home try to pull loose from a costly war some believe can no longer be won outright.

A strategic partnership pact between Washington and Kabul that was expected to provide a framework for Monday’s meeting in Bonn of officials from dozens of nations has not been pinned down in time — and may take months more to secure.

Pakistan, an insecure but powerful neighbor and perhaps the single most critical player in efforts to end Afghan violence, is boycotting the meet after NATO aircraft killed 24 of its soldiers in a weekend attack the alliance called a “tragic … accident”.

Hopes that Taliban representatives would attend and herald a breakthrough in reconciliation efforts have also faded.

And hanging over the whole meeting will be the weight of a decade in which thousands of lives and billions of dollars have failed to secure Afghanistan and achieved only fragile gains in education and women’s rights, falling well short of the promises made at a conference ten years ago in the same city.

“There is definitely a sharp contrast between this Bonn conference and 2001, when there was hope and enthusiasm in the air and a desire to move beyond the Taliban and do reconstruction,” said Kamran Bokhari, vice-president for South Asian affairs at political risk analysts Stratfor.

KABUL/LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistan pulled out of an international conference on the future of Afghanistan on Tuesday, its latest angry riposte after a cross-border attack by NATO that killed 24 of its soldiers and plunged the conflict-plagued region deeper into crisis.

Islamabad’s decision to boycott next week’s meeting in the German city of Bonn on securing peace after NATO combat troops leave Afghanistan in 2014 means a key player that can lean on Taliban militants to join the process will be absent.

“The cabinet reaffirmed Pakistan’s support for stability and peace in Afghanistan and the importance of an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned process of reconciliation,” the government said in a statement.

“Pakistan looks forward to the success of this conference but in view of developments and prevailing circumstances has decided not to participate in the conference.”

The move will not be a major setback to the process of planning Afghanistan’s future as few tangible results were expected at Bonn, despite the attendance of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other government ministers.

Bonn was organized with the expectation that Washington and Kabul would have pinned down by then what their strategic relationship would look like after the departure of foreign combat troops, but talks on this have dragged on inconclusively.

Indeed, Pakistan’s decision to pull out over last weekend’s border attack was seen by some diplomats as an over-reaction because the conference involves the wider international community, including China, Japan, Iran and the European Union.

ISLAMABAD/KABUL (Reuters) – Fury spread in Pakistan on Sunday over a NATO cross-border air attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers and could undermine the U.S. effort to wind up the war in Afghanistan.

On Sunday night in Pakistan, more than 40 hours after the incident, many questions remained.

NATO described the killings as a “tragic unintended incident” and said an investigation was underway. A Western official and an Afghan security official who requested anonymity said NATO troops were responding to fire from across the border.

It’s possible both explanations are correct: that a retaliatory attack by NATO troops took a tragic, mistaken turn in harsh terrain where identifying friend and foe can be difficult.

Militants often attack from Pakistani soil or flee after combat across a porous border that NATO-led troops, under their United Nations mandate, cannot cross.

What is clear is the incident could undermine U.S. efforts to improve ties with Pakistan so that the regional power helps stabilize Afghanistan before NATO combat troops go home by the end of 2014.

The attack was the latest perceived provocation by the United States, which infuriated Pakistan’s powerful military with a unilateral special forces raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in May.

KABUL (Reuters) – NATO helicopters attacked a military checkpoint in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, killing up to 28 troops and prompting Pakistan to shut the vital supply route for NATO troops fighting in Afghanistan, Pakistani officials said.

NATO supply trucks and fuel tankers bound for Afghanistan were halted at Jamrud town in the Khyber tribal region near the city of Peshawar hours after the raid, officials said.

Following are some facts about the Pakistani supply routes for NATO forces fighting in Afghanistan and the alternatives:

THE ROUTES AND SUPPLIES

There are two routes into Afghanistan from Pakistan, one across the Khyber Pass to the Afghan border town of Torkham and on to Kabul. The other goes through Pakistan’s Baluchistan province to the border town of Chaman and on to the southern Afghan city, and former Taliban stronghold, of Kandahar.

Between them these two routes account for just under one third of all cargo that the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) ships into Afghanistan.

Just over one third of all cargo goes on routes dubbed the “northern distribution network” through Central Asia, and the Caucasus or Russia. The remaining 31 percent is flown in.