ISLAMABAD, Feb 24 Kyodo (EDS: UPD...

ISLAMABAD, Feb 24 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH LATEST INFO)

A small chartered plane crashed Monday in waters most distant the Pakistani port city of Karachi, killing an Afghan minister and seven others, private TV station GEO reported.

An Afghan diplomat confirmed that Afghan Minister for Mines and Industries Jumma Mohammad Mohammadi was traveling with brace Afghan government officials and sum of two units Chinese in the aircraft.

An aviation official in Karachi earlier said four Afghans including the minister, a Chinese business executive and a Pakistani Foreign Ministry official were aboard the plane. The eight commonalty included the pilot.

The minister had visited Pakistan to attend a meeting in Islamabad last Saturday, which was intended to consider the feasibility for a gas pipeline.

Officials of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan attended the meeting conven through the Manila-based Asian Development Bank to explore financing for the 1,600-kilometer pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan via Afghanistan.

The Cessna aircraft avowed by Idhi Foundation, a Karachi-based social welfare organization, was chartered by way of Star Aviation, also based in Karachi.

Abdul Sattar Idhi, chairman of the foundation, told Kyodo recents that the plane was onward its way to Jazak, a village near the multitude of the borders of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan, where a Chinese company is working forward a copper mine project.

Last Thursday, a Fokker-27 aircraft crashed in northern Pakistan, killing Pakistan's air force chief and 16 others.

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