India to move some troops from border with Pakistan

NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- India will remove some troops from its border with Pakistan, its defense minister said Wednesday, in a step that appears designed to ease tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals.

The move affect troops along the shared 1,800-mile border, except the volatile cease-fire line that divides the Himalayan province of Jammu-Kashmir between the countries, Defense Minister George Fernandes said after a meeting of senior Cabinet ministers and defense officials.

"There will be no lowering of vigil in Jammu and Kashmir," Fernandes told reporters after the 90-minute meeting, presided over by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Troops will "redeploy from positions on the international border with Pakistan, without impairing their capacity to respond decisively to any emergency," Fernandes said.

The neighbors have fought two wars of divided Kashmir, which both nations claim in its entirety, and they came close to another war in May.