British troops readied for Kashmir

About three hundred soldiers of one of the Army's leading infantry regiments have been told to prepare for peacekeeping duties in Kashmir as part of a joint British-American force.

The 500 to 600-strong joint force would be deployed by helicopter along the "line of control" marking the frontier between the two parts of the disputed territory of Kashmir, ruled by India and Pakistan. It would be sent only with the consent of the Indian and Pakistani governments.

Yesterday Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon confirmed at the Brussels meeting of Nato defence ministers that the joint force is "an option being considered".

He added: "There has been some very general discussion of the need to find a practical way of giving both sides reassurances particularly India." But at the same that the ministers were discussion Kashmir at Nato Headquarters, it is understood that officers and men of 1st Battalion the Royal Welch Fusiliers were being given a "preliminary briefing" about joining a mission to Kashmir.

The battalion headquarters, support troops and one rifle company were given "a description of a possible mission to Kashmir", according to sources. This was not yet a "warning order" with notice to move, but it it has been taken as the first indication that the Fusiliers could be sent to join the Americans in a peace mission in Kashmir.

The Royal Welch Fusiliers, one of the proudest line regiments in the Army, distinguished itself during the siege of Gorazde at the end of the war in Bosnia in 1995.

India yesterday appeared to reject the need for an independent monitoring force. "It is absolutely unnecessary to have third-party monitoring," said Nirupama Rao, spokeswoman for the external affairs ministry yesterday. However, the author of the idea, US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, is due to visit New Delhi early next week, and is likely to press the idea of the international force as a confidence building measure between India and Pakistan.

In London this week he said he was worried that the stand-off between the two regional nuclear powers was deflecting attention from the hunt for al Qaeda and the war on terrorism.

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