Britain, US Ready to Send Monitoring Troops to Kashmir

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, June 07, 2002

Britain, US Ready to Send Monitoring Troops to Kashmir

Britain and the United States are ready to send troops to Kashmir to monitor the Line of Control dividing the Indian and Pakistan-held areas, The Times reported Friday.

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Britain and the United States are ready to send troops to Kashmir to monitor the Line of Control dividing the Indian and Pakistan-held areas, The Times reported Friday.

The plan to ease the tensions between India and Pakistan has been discussed by British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon and his American counterpart Donald Rumsfeld, "although it has yet to be agreed with either of India and Pakistan, the nuclear-armed rivals," the report said.

"There has been a general discussion on the need to find a practical way of giving both sides reassurance, particularly India because there have been some infiltration across the line of control and an international monitoring force could be suitable," the paper quoted Hoon as saying.

The British defense secretary said the plan had been put to India and Pakistan and he indicated that although New Delhi was "not yet wholly persuaded" by the idea of such a force, it had not rejected the idea out of hand, the report said.

"We're willing to look at every option to give Pakistan and India a reason not to launch an attack at each other," Hoon said.

But the report also noted that India on Thursday "once again appeared to rule out any form of international monitoring force."

Meanwhile, India promoted its own view that joint patrols with Pakistan were the only way to crush the Islamic militancy that has pushed the neighboring countries to the brink of war.

Pakistan gave a lukewarm response to India's proposal, sticking to its stated preference for international or United Nations monitors.

Another report here quoted a defense ministry spokeswoman as saying on Friday that plans to deploy an international monitoring force were "basically one option that is being considered, that is being talked about."

"There are absolutely no plans to go ahead with this at this stage," the defense ministry spokeswoman added.

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