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ISLAMABAD, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Pakistan vowed on Thursday to respond positively to India's decision to withdraw some of its troops from their common border.

It also repeated calls for a resumption of dialogue with India over the disputed Kashmir region, at the centre of a military standoff between the nuclear rivals who have up to one million troops massed long their frontier.

"The government of Pakistan...regards the Indian government's decision for a phased withdrawal of its armed forces from the Pakistan-India border as a step in the right direction," a foreign office statement said.

"The implementation on the ground of the Indian government's decision will receive a positive and timely response from Pakistan," it added, without elaborating.

Political analysts in Islamabad have said they expected Pakistan would begin to withdraw some of its troops from the frontier in response to similar steps by India.

The announcement by India on Wednesday signalled the end to the longest and biggest peacetime deployment in the country's history and is expected to reduce tensions over Kashmir.

Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes said that troop levels would be reduced except for along the line of control which separates the countries in the Himalayan Kashmir region.

But he ruled out talks with Pakistan "as long as Pakistan terrorism continues."

On Thursday India also announced Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee planned to visit Pakistan for a regional summit early next year, although there was "no scope" for bilateral talks with Pakistan.

India blames Pakistan for sponsoring militant Islamic groups who cross into Indian-controlled Kashmir to fight a violent separatist insurgency.

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf says he has stopped infiltration and does not offer practical support to separatist fighters, although the country's official position is that it does lend them "moral, political and diplomatic" backing.

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