Islamabad: Pakistan on October 17 announced withdrawal of its troops "shortly" from the border with India to their "peace-time locations," a day after India took a similar step.

"The government of Pakistan has decided to withdraw its forces from Pakistan-India border to their peace-time locations," a Foreign Ministry statement said.

"The pullback will commence shortly," the statement, which was issued shortly after Pakistan welcomed as a "step in the right direction" India's decision to withdraw its troops from the international border, said.

The decision was taken at a high-power meeting chaired by President Pervez Musharraf, the statement said.

Earlier, a statement by a foreign ministry spokesman welcomed India's decision to withdraw troops from the Indo-Pak border and said New Delhi would receive a "positive and timely" response from Islamabad.

It said Pakistan was committed to resolve all differences, including on Kashmir, on the basis of sovereign equality, justice, international law and the principles of UN Charter through sustained and purposeful dialogue.

"Pakistan has consistently called for de-escalation, withdrawal of the Indian troops to peace-time locations and resumption of dialogue," the statement said.

"The government of Pakistan therefore regards the Indian government's decision for withdrawal of its armed forces from the Pakistan and India border as a step in a right direction.

The implementation on the ground of the Indian government decision will receive positive and timely response from Pakistan," it said.

Pakistan's Information Minister, Nissar Memon, also welcomed India's decision to withdraw troops as a "good step" and called for total de-escalation to improve the relations between the two countries.

"It is a good step but if they want to establish relations with Pakistan, they must completely de-escalate the situation. At the same time they should also announce that they want to negotiate with Pakistan," he told BBC Radio.

PTI