The two-week-old dispute led to acute newsprint shortages for the Jang Group and what it described as a nationwide police ``siege'' of its offices. The simmering row burst into the open early last week when the group alleged it had been forced to sack certain journalists and support government policies.

The authorities hit back that the group had tried to create a stir to cover up more than two billion rupees it allegedly owed in income and wealth taxes as well as customs duties on its newsprint imports. ``The dispute has begun to move towards a resolution but let me make it clear that it will be unconditional,'' Jang's owner and chief executive Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman said.

He confirmed that a ``lengthy'' meeting took place on Saturday with a high-level government team including Pakistani PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif's younger brother Shahbaz Sharif, Chief Minister of the heartland Punjab province.

``The principle of press freedom remained in the forefront during the talks,'' which would continue, Shakil-ur-Rehman was quoted as saying by The News daily, one of the Jang Group's chain of publications in both English and Urdu. Saifur Rehman, a senator and chief of the government's powerful Accountability Bureau, said ``all issues'' were discussed during a meeting between him and Shakil-ur-Rehman. The senator, blamed by the group for the alleged arm-twisting, was quoted by the official news agency APP as saying the media campaign was uncalled for and the government ``did not take any legal action despite all kinds of provocations.''

He said newsprint had been released as ordered by the Supreme Court, and police and Federal Investigation Agency staff had been withdrawn from Jang Group offices. Instructions had also been issued to unfreeze the group's accounts.

The issue of tax notices wouldbe resolved ``through legal parameters,'' Saifur Rehman said, adding the meeting was ``positive'' and negotiations would continue. The row triggered protests by professional journalist bodies and newspaper trade unions in the major cities, with the biggest in the Punjab capital of Lahore, where some 3,000 marched for press freedom on Wednesday.