Visiting US Secretary of State Colin Powell announced in Islamabad Thursday the United States would designate Pakistan a "major non-NATO ally." 

"I advised the foreign minister this morning that we will also be making a notification to our Congress that will designate Pakistan as a major non-NATO ally for the purposes of our future military to military relations," Powell told a press conference after meeting his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri.

Powell arrived here Wednesday evening for talks with Kasuri, President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali on the ongoing hunt for al-Qaeda terrorists, nuclear proliferation and peace moves between Pakistan and India.

Pakistan is the last leg of Powell's five-day South Asia tour that has taken him to India and Afghanistan.

(Xinhua News Agency March 18, 2004)