New Delhi, July 17 -- Pakistan has been negotiating an expanded defence pact with Kuwait in exchange for energy cooperation and investment, according to five sources with knowledge of the talks.

The talks remain at an early stage, all the sources said, and could still be complicated by heightened tensions between the United States and Iran, said one source.

Reuters reported on Thursday that there were mounting concerns in Islamabad that its mutual defence pact with Saudi Arabia, signed last year, could draw Pakistan into the US-Iran war. After the Iran-aligned Houthi movement launched an attack on Saudi Arabia on Monday, nuclear-armed Pakistan told Iran it would treat attacks on the kingdom as attacks on itself.

Any defence deal with K...