Brussels - Any European Union-based airline will be able to operate flights to Pakistan from any EU state which has an agreement with the Islamic Republic, after officials from the two sides signed a deal to that effect on Tuesday.

The agreement does not force either side to open up new routes or increase traffic. That is to remain an issue for negotiation between Pakistan and individual EU member states.

But EU diplomats say they hope the conclusion of the so-called "horizontal" deal will encourage new operators to launch EU-Pakistan flights.

The signature of the deal restores legal clarity to an industry which was thrown into turmoil in November 2002, when the European Court ruled that bilateral civil-aviation agreements were illegal.

The court ruled that such agreements, which only dealt with the airlines headquartered in a single EU state, discriminated against airlines operating out of the same state but headquartered in a different EU country.

The EU's solution was to create horizontal agreements on behalf of the bloc. Those agreements effectively amend all existing bilateral deals with a given country to say that the EU states and the third country agree to treat all EU airlines equally.

Officials in Brussels say that such agreements are acceptable in the European Court, and therefore do not run the risk of a legal challenge based on the 2002 ruling. (dpa)