Pakistani Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar said the government would let NATO ship perishable items for only a limited time and had asked the coalition not to order any more. He did not indicate when the approval was given.
The United States and Pakistan disagree over blame for the air strikes, but there have been growing signs that relations are improving.
There was a temporary hiccup in that process Tuesday when Pakistani police briefly detained a U.S. Embassy employee after bullets were found in his luggage at an airport in northwest Pakistan. But the man was handed over to American officials after a couple of hours.
The move to allow food items to enter Afghanistan could be a precursor to opening the border altogether.
Pakistan's parliament is expected to vote this week on a revised framework for relations with the United States that could pave the way for the government to reopen the supply line.
Also, senior Pakistani officials have said in recent days that the government should fully reopen its border to NATO supplies as long as it can negotiate better fees from the coalition.
Pakistan security forces met with their NATO and Afghan counterparts Tuesday to discuss improving security for the forthcoming coalition convoys, said Saeed Ahmed, spokesman for the paramilitary Frontier Corps.
For most of the 10-year war in Afghanistan, 90 percent of supplies shipped to coalition forces came through Pakistan, via the port of Karachi. But over the last three years, NATO has increased its road and rail shipments through an alternative route through Russia and Central Asia.
Before the accidental American air strikes, about 30 percent of nonlethal supplies for U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan traveled through Pakistan. The United States has since increased the amount of supplies running through the northern route, but this has cost it a lot more money.
