Islamabad: Pakistan proposes to accord "MFN-Plus" trade partner status to India under the recently signed South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) treaty to grant more privileges to New Delhi, than under the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status, media reports said in Islamabad.

Under the new MFN-Plus partner status, which would be discussed by the officials of the two countries in coming weeks, both the countries would accord benefits to each other on par with the benefits being accorded to their most friendly countries, reports in several newspapers quoted local officials as saying.

Pakistani officials propose an arrangement under which India and Pakistan could accord maximum benefits to each other.

Indian and Pakistani officials will soon hold negotiations for finalising a list of sensitive items that were not to be traded between the two sides. They would also discuss the amount of revenue losses each side would be incurring due to trading at the lowest possible duty rates and even after removal of duties and taxes on several items, the reports said.

The issue of granting MFN status to India remained a contentious issue for a long time as Pakistan linked trade ties with India to that of progress on talks on Kashmir.

But Pakistan changed its stand during last week's SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) summit and signed the SAFTA treaty promising to open its markets to India under the SAARC process if not directly under bilateral process.