WASHINGTON - The United States Tuesday dispelled an impression that negotiations with Pakistan aimed at reopening the supply routes into Afghanistan had been cut off, saying the dialogue was continuing.

“The team that negotiated directly with Pakistan has mostly left the country. It’s important to note though that we do continue dialogue through ODRP (Office of Defence Representative) in Islamabad. So it is not as if we have completely cut off discussions altogether,” Pentagon spokesman George Little said.
 “We continue to have dialogue on this issue. Yes, the negotiating team is coming home for what we hope will be a short period of time. We hope that GLOCs (ground lines of communication) are opened soon. And we look forward to having our officials go back to Islamabad to seal the deal at some point in near future,’” he said at a Pentagon briefing. The two sides have not reached agreement obviously on every single issue but agree on many of the technicalities, it was pointed out. The spokesman would not go into specifics of negotiations but said he believed there is a window of opportunity to reopen the ground supply routes.