Later in May, Pakistan demanded the United States to pay stiff fees as a condition to open up NATO supply routes into Afghanistan. The United States, however, could not pay the required $5,000 per truck due to budgetary restraints according to US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. "Considering the financial challenges that we're facing, that's not likely," Panetta said of the Pakistani demand of $5,000 for each truck carrying supplies across its territory for NATO troops waging the Afghanistan war. Unnamed US officials said that US officials said they had hoped a meeting between Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and US President Barack Obama as well as sharing the spotlight with President Obama and other global leaders during the 2012 NATO Chicago Summit might provide an incentive for a deal on resuming supply shipments. "The invitation was an inducement to get them back into the international fold," said a senior US official, speaking anonymously because of the sensitive issues. "But the Pakistanis couldn't get their own act together" in time for the summit. "The main issue, it seems, is money." The United States and Pakistan had nearly completed a deal to reopen crucial NATO supply routes into Afghanistan in June 2012, when Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said the US was "reaching the limits of our patience" over Islamabad's failure to root out Afghan insurgents in its tribal areas. In the wake of Panetta's comments, deputy assistant secretary of Defense Peter Lavoy was not allowed to meet with the Pakistani Army Chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and the Pentagon announced that it was bringing home a negotiating team that had worked in the Pakistani capital for nearly two months to end the bitter impasse over the supply routes. A senior US official disputed the notion that Panetta's criticism of Pakistan had set back the talks. "The sticking point for a long time has been the apology issue," the official said. Supply lines reopening Pakistan decided to reopen the supply lines after the US Secretary of State apologised on 3 July 2012 for the Salala incident via a telephone call to Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar. "Foreign Minister Khar and I acknowledged the mistakes that resulted in the loss of Pakistani military lives," Clinton said in a statement. "We are sorry for the losses suffered by the Pakistani military. We are committed to working closely with Pakistan and Afghanistan to