LONDON, Dec 2: Britain on Tuesday welcomed President General Pervez Musharraf’s latest proposal to pull out Pakistani troops from Azad Kashmir if India did likewise by withdrawing its 700,00 troops from occupied Kashmir.

“We welcome the proposal from President Musharraf to reduce troops level in Azad Kashmir,” a spokeswoman for British Foreign and Commonwealth Office told APP while commenting on the President Musharraf’s proposal during his interview with BBC Urdu Service on Monday.

President Musharraf said on Monday Pakistan would withdraw its 50,000 troops from Azad Kashmir if India withdrew its 700,000 troops from Indian-held Kashmir.

The spokeswomen said: “This was latest in the series of confidence-building measures and we hope both sides will continue to engage constructively with each other to agree implementation.”

Britain, she said, had always desired that peaceful engagement was necessary to resolve the differences between Islamabad and New Delhi.

“But we recognize it requires political vision and courage from both countries leaders to make it happen,” said the spokeswoman.—APP