KABUL - President Hamid Karzai's Cabinet on Monday expressed its willingness for electricity exports from Uzbekistan to Pakistan through Afghanistan. At a meeting, chaired by Karzai, the Cabinet discussed a request from the Pakistani embassy for power exports from Uzbekistan through the landlocked country. A statement from the Presidential Palace said the government had granted the Pakistani request for the power line to pass through Afghanistan.

"The route and conditions for this line will be decided by technical Pakistani and Afghan teams after negotiations," Deputy Minister of Water and Energy GhulamFarooqQaziZada said.

The Cabinet also approved an agreement with an Iranian company for cement production in western Herat province.

Under the pact, the PishgamanSanatMajid Company would produce a million tons of cement annually at a cost of $150 million (7.4 billion Afghanis).

The company has agreed to hire Afghans in addition to constructing residential houses, health clinics, schools, mosques, entertainment parks and an 11-kilometre road.

It would also pay taxes to the Afghan government in accordance with the relevant laws.
The statement said the Iranian firm would also develop the Pahlawanan coal mine in Herat.