ABBOTABAD, Dec 11: Pakistani and Chinese troops on Monday began 10-day anti-terrorism joint military exercise in the mountainous northern region.

More than 200 Chinese troops, including the Elite Group, are taking part in the first-ever joint military exercise.

Earlier, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers and their Pakistani counterparts raised flags and played their national anthems at a special ceremony in Abbotabad.

The Chinese contingent flew in Rawalpindi on Sunday to take part in the 10-day exercise dubbed ‘Friendship 2006’.

The exercise comes around two weeks after Chinese President Hu Jintao pledged to take strategic ties with Pakistan to a ‘new level’ during his first-ever visit to the South Asian country.

“This is the first time that a PLA contingent has arrived in Pakistan” on an exercise, a senior Pakistani military official said, adding that Pakistani troops visited China for joint exercises in 2004.

“The exercise is a display of the mutual commitment and resolve to fight terrorism, besides bolstering time-tested friendship between the two countries,” the official said.

After the ceremony in Abbotabad, the soldiers were due to head to the mountains further north for the exercises, the official said.—Agencies