India has agreed to a Chinese demand to demolish bunkers near their de facto border in the Himalayas, Indian military officials said, as part of a deal to end a standoff that threatened to scupper slowly improving relations.

Indian and Chinese soldiers faced off 100 meters apart on a plateau near the Karakoram mountain range, where they fought a war 50 years ago, for three weeks until they reached a deal on Sunday for both sides to withdraw.

The tension had threatened to overshadow a visit by the Indian foreign minister to Beijing on May 9.

Details of the deal have not been made public but a senior official from the Indian army's northern command said India had agreed to abandon and destroy bunkers in the Chumar sector, further south along the disputed border.

"The bunkers in Chumar were dismantled after we acceded to Chinese demand in the last flag meeting. These bunkers were live-in bunkers," the army officer told Reuters on Tuesday.

India said up to 50 Chinese soldiers "intruded" into its territory on the western rim of the Himalayas on April 15. Some Indian officials and experts believed the "incursion" signaled Chinese concern about increased Indian activity in the area.

India said the Chinese soldiers were 19 kilometers beyond the point it understands to be the border in the Ladakh region of Kashmir, a line called the Line of Actual Control, which neither side agrees on.

China denied it had crossed into Indian territory.

Reuters